
Glass _*. 1 

Book ^ 




INAUGURAL PROCESSION. 



BUILDING THE NATION 



EVENTS IN THE 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE BEGINNING OF 
THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 



BY 

CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN 

AUTHOR OF 
'THE BOYS OF '76" "THE STORY OF LIBERTY" "OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES" ETC. 



Illustrated 



NEW YORK AND LONDON 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1902 






o^ 



Copyright, 1882, by Harper & Brothers. 
3 5 (g / 

'03. 



PREFACE. 



To the Boys and Girls of the United States : 

In reading this volume, you will notice that the men who began to 
Build the Nation had no model by which to fashion it. There never had 
been a government of the people — never a written Constitution. There 
were no finger-posts in history to point them to the right way ; but they 
were actuated by a deep and abiding love for liberty, justice, and equal 
rights, and did what seemed to them best for the general good. 

The Constitution is an embodiment of the political wisdom of the 
ages; yet, as you will notice, the people were reluctant to adopt it, fear- 
ing that in its workings — in consenting to have Congress make general 
laws for the country — there would be a loss of sovereignty on the part 
of the States. 

It will be seen that the men who began the building were not far 
enough advanced from the ideas of the feudal age to recognize all men, 
irrespective of race and color, as entitled to the privileges of the Consti- 
tution. They excluded those who had African blood in their veins. It 
was agreed that slaves should not be classed as citizens entitled to vote, 
but that they should, at the same time, be counted as inhabitants, which, 
with the idea that the sovereignty of a single State is greater than that 
of the nation, has had a great deal to do in giving direction to the course 
of our country's history. 

At the time the Constitution was adopted slavery was dying out in 
the Northern States, and it was supposed that it would soon come to an 
end in all the States; but the inventions of James Hargreaves and Rich- 
ard Ark wright in spinning; the invention of the steam-engine by James 
Watt; the beginning of manufacturing in Great Britain; the demand for 
cotton; the invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney, made the cultiva- 
tion of cotton very profitable. In consequence more slaves were wanted 
to cultivate the fields of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Missis- 
sippi ; and, instead of dying out, slavery became a permanent institution 
peculiar to the Southern States, affecting society in all its relations. 

Slavery was a degradation of labor. So it came about that there were 
classes — planters who owned slaves, who were rich and influential; and 



b' PREFACE. 

people who had little money, who owned no slaves — who felt that it would 
be a losing of their manhood to work for a living. 

The planters could educate their children, but there were no common- 
schools where the children of the poor white people could obtain an edu- 
cation. Ignorance is weakness ; knowledge, power. The planters became 
the governing class — making and executing the laws. In this way slavery 
became a great political power — from 1820 to 1860 — making itself felt 
in all the affairs of state. 

There have been great changes in manners, customs, ways of living, 
travelling, and the transmission of information, brought about by discovery 
and invention — by setting rivers to turning wheels, by burning coal in 
steam-engines, relieving men from toil and hardship, and adding to their 
comfort and happiness. 

There has been the coming; in of new ideas in morals. Duelling, which 
once was regarded as honorable, has become a crime. Not now, as in 
other days, can men drink intoxicating drinks till they fall helpless to the 
floor, and yet occupy exalted positions in society. 

With the diffusion of intelligence — the rising to a higher civilization — 
there has been, at the same time, a quickening of religious life — an increas- 
ing sense of obligation to help the poor, the unfortunate, and the degraded, 
by establishing schools, churches, hospitals, asylums, sending out mission- 
aries to the destitute and degraded of every land, with the sole purpose of 
giving them the blessings of a Christian civilization. 

Soon after the adoption of the Constitution the United States began 
to teach other nations by example — lighting the torch of liberty in France, 
South America, and Mexico — becoming the leader of all the nations, and 
introducing a new order of things in government. From small beginnings 
the nation has become great and strong ; its flag the emblem of the world's 
best hope. 

The question, I doubt not, will come to you, as to the future of the 
nation — what it is to be ; the measure of influence it is destined to exert 
upon other nations; the part it is to play in the great drama of Time. If, 
as you study these pages, there shall come a deepening of love for our 
country, its prosperity and welfare — for liberty — for the Constitution and 
the Union ; if there shall come a more ardent aspiration that in the future, 
as in the past, our country may still be teacher and leader of the nations 
toward a higher and nobler civilization — toward justice, right, and liberty 
— the object I have had in view, in preparing this volume, will be ac- 
complished. 

Charles Carleton Coffin. 

Boston, 1882. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. page 

Beginning 13 

CHAPTER II. 
First Years of the Constitution . . 27 

CHAPTER III. 
Teaching by Example 42 

CHAPTER IV. 

Influence of France upon the 
United States 58 

CHAPTER V. 
Forces of Civilization 63 

CHAPTER VI. 
Social Life in New England 78 

CHAPTER VII. 
Social Life in Other States 93 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Administration of John Adams. . . . 112 

CHAPTER IX. 
War with Algdsrs 119 



CHAPTER X. PAGE 

Opening Years of the Century ... 131 

CHAPTER XI. 

how there came to be war with 
England 142 

CHAPTER XII. 
Victories on the Sea 159 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Second Year of the "War 171 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Second and Third Year of the 

War 187 

CHAPTER XV. 

Close of the War with England. . 207 

CHAPTER XVI. 
From 1817 to 1832 232 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Religious and Moral Forces 251 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Progress of Temperance 271 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIX. PAGE CHAPTER XXVIII. PAGE 

Prejudice against Color 282 Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave 

Law 399 

CHAPTER XX. 

Texas 291 CHAPTER XXIX. 

Kansas 407 

CHAPTER XXI. 

War with the Seminole Indians . . 301 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Beginning of a Great Movement . . 305 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
War with Mexico 314 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
War with Mexico — Continued 332 



CHAPTER XXV. 



California 



353 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
Oregon 363 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Compromise of 1850 387 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Underground Railroad 418 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Progress of Invention 425 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Mormons 440 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Literature and Science 450 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

John Brown 460 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Election of Abraham Lin- 
coln 468 



INDEX • ..•■•• 477 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE I 

Inaugural Procession Frontispiece 

David Hartley 14 

Benjamin Franklin , 15 

John Jay 15 

The State-house at Annapolis 16 

Washington Resigning his Commission 17 

George Washington. (By Trumbull) 18 

Map of the North-west Territory 23 

Where Washington was Inaugurated 26 

Campus Martius 37 

Fort Washington, on the Site of Cincinnati 28 

Departure of Immigrants 29 

Fort Harmar 30 

Hail's Crossing-place 30 

Harmar's Defeat 31 

Place of Harmar's Defeat 31 

Anthony Wayne 32 

Plan of Battle 33 

Turkey-foot Rock 34 

General Wayne's Home 35 

Drawing-room, Wayne Homestead 36 

Washington and his Servant 37 

Washington Attending a Ball 38 

Lady Washington's Reception-day. (Repro- 
duced, by permission, from the engraving 
of Mr. Huntington's celebrated painting) 39 

Oliver Ellsworth 41 

Rousseau 44 

Voltaire 45 

Louis XVI 46 

The Three Orders 47 

Camille Desmoulins 48 

Sacking the Arsenal 49 

Taking of the Bastile. (From an Old Print) 50 
Club-house of the Jacobins. (From an Old 

Print) 51 

Women Marching to Versailles. (From an 

Old Print) 53 

Attack on the Tuileries. (From an Old 

Print) 54 

Rouget de l'Isle 55 

1* 



PAGE 

First Singing of the " Marseillaise" 56 

Thomas Paine 58 

State Street, Boston, 1801 60 

Genet 61 

The Contrast 62 

From the New England Primer 64 

The School Examination 65 

Noah Webster 67 

The Boy who Stole Apples 68 

Spinning: Large Wheel 69 

Spinning: Small Wheel 70 

Hargreaves's Spinning-jenny 71 

Arkwright's Spinning-frame 71 

Fitch' s Steamboat 73 

Eii Whitney 74 

The Sea Islands 75 

Cotton-gin "76 

Hoeing Rice 76 

Wide-awake Deacon 79 

Pitching the Tune 80 

The Long Sermon 81 

"I'll give it to you!" 83 

A New "England Kitchen 84 

Sugar-trees 85 

Boiling Sap 86 

Caricature of the Infantry 87 

Buying Turkeys 88 

Weaving 89 

Speaking in Town-meeting 90 

The Fourth of July 91 

Room in a New York Dutch Home 93 

After Dinner 95 

Dutch Courting 96 

Singing a Hymn to St. Nicholas 98 

A ( larden-party 99 

An < >ld-time Cup of Coffee 100 

Old-time School in Pennsylvania 101 

In the Stocks 102 

The Family Coach 103 

A Virginia Kitchen 104 

Christmas in Virginia 105 



10 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Ready for the Hunt 107 

A Virginia Reel 108 

A Kentucky Wedding 109 

John Adams 112 

C. C. Pinckney 113 

Elbridge Gerry 113 

Scene in the Theatre in Philadelphia, 1794 114 

Constellation and La Vengeance 116 

Medal to Commander Truxtun 117 

Washington's Tomb at Mount Vernon — 118 

Thomas Jefferson 119 

Robert R. Livingston 120 

Algiers in 1800 120 

William Bainbridge 121 

Moors Grinding Swords 122 

Interior of a Moorish Cafe" 123 

Edward Preble 125 

Stephen Decatur 126 

Scene in Tangiers 128 

The Desert 129 

Nathaniel Massie 131 

Old State-house, Chillicothe 132 

Massie's Monument 133 

Aaron Burr 134 

Duel between Hamilton and Burr 135 

Where Hamilton Fell 136 

Blennerhasset's House 137 

Burr's Troops Going Down the Ohio 138 

Robert Fulton 139 

Robert Fulton's Birthplace 140 

The Clermont 141 

James Madison 143 

Tecumtha 145 

Fort Harrison 145 

Tippecanoe Battle-ground 146 

Josiah Quincy 147 

William Hull 118 

States and Territories in the South and 

West, 1812 149 

Detroit River and Vicinity 150 

Fort Dearborn— 1812 151 

Maguaga Battle-ground 152 

Duncan M'Arthur 153 

Lewis Cass 154 

Monroe, from the Battle-ground 154 

Map of the Niagara Frontier 155 

Solomon Van Rensselaer 157 

John Brant 157 

Isaac Hull 159 

Escape of the Constitution 161 

James Dacres 163 

Constitution and Guerriere 165 

Jacob Jones 167 

A Wasp on a Frolic 168 

Bainbridge's Medal 169 

Lasalle's House 171 



Winchester's Head-quarters 172 

Movements at Frenchtown 173 

York (now Toronto) 174 

Zebulon Pike 174 

William Henry Harrison 175 

Fort Meigs 175 

Siege of Fort Meigs 176 

Sackett's Harbor, 1814 177 

Operations at Sackett's Harbor, May, 1813. . 178 

Jacob Brown 178 

View at Fremont 180 

Major Croghan 181 

Attack on Fort Stephenson 182 

Stoniugton Flag 183 

Jeremiah Holmes 183 

Denison's Monument 184 

A Musical Stratagem 185 

Perry's Lookout 187 

Commodore Perry 188 

Perry's Birthplace, South Kingston, R. I 188 

Put-in Bay. (Battle in the Distance) 189 

First Position 190 

Stephen Champlin 190 

Perry Changing Ship 191 

Position at the Close of the Battle 192 

Fac-simile of Perry's Despatch 192 

John Bull and Queen Charlotte 193 

Thames Battle-ground 194 

Plan of the Battle of the Thames 195 

Buffalo, 1813 196 

Battle of Niagara Falls 197 

JohnM'Neil 198 

View at Lundy's Lane, 1860 198 

James Miller 199 

Battle of Lundy's Lane 201 

Thomas Macdonough 203 

View from Cumberland Head 204 

Alexander Macomb 204 

Naval Battle of Lake Champlain 205 

Battle of Plattsburg. (From an Old Print) 206 

James Robertson 208 

John Coffee 209 

The Battle of the Horseshoe 210 

Joshua Barney 211 

William H. Winder 211 

Bridge at Bladensburg 212 

March of the British Army from Benedict 

to Bladensburg 213 

Plan of the Battle-ground at Bladensburg. . 213 

The Capitol after the Fire 215 

President's House after the Fire 215 

Mrs. Madison 216 

Admiral Sir Peter Parker 217 

Samuel Smith 217 

General Strieker 218 

Battle-ground at North Point 218 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



11 



PAGE 

Remains of Battery 219 

Fac-siinile of the Original Manuscript of 
the First Stanza of " The Star-spangled 

Banner 221 

Samuel Chester Reid 223 

Andrew Jackson 225 

Positions of the American and British Ar- 
mies near New Orleans, January 8, 1815. . 226 

Jackson's Head-quarters 227 

Chalmette's Plantation 227 

Battle of New Orleans. (From an Old Print) 228 

Behind the. Breastworks 229 

Remains of Rodriguez's Canal, New Orleans 231 

James Monroe 232 

Pensioners 233 

House where the First American Flag was 

Made 234 

The Stage 237 

Old-time Chaise 238 

De Witt Clinton 239 

Locks at Lockport 241 

Entrance to the Erie Canal at Troy 242 

John Randolph 243 

Henry Clay 244 

Ashland 244 

Lafayette 245 

Bunker Hill Monument 240 

John Quincy Adams 346 

John C. Calhoun 248 

Daniel Webster 248 

Webster's Place, Marshfield 249 

Address to " Old Hickory " 250 

First Presbyterian Church, New York 253 

Barbara Heck 255 

First Methodist Church in New York. (From 

an Old Print) 250 

Straw bridge Meeting-house. (From an Old 

Print) 250 

Francis Asbury 257 

Trinity Church, New York, 1774 258 

William Ellery Channing 259 

Robert Raikes 260 

Joanna Prince's School 261 

Williamstown 202 

Old-time Singing-school 263 

College and Library, Williamstown 265 

Old-time Choir 207 

The Morning Dram 272 

Waiting for a Drink 273 

Idling their Time Away 274 

Making the Bargain. (Copied from a Cut in 

the Pamphlet) 270 

The Demons in the Distillery. (Copied from 

a Cut iu the Pamphlet) 277 

Bursting Out of the Flames. (Copied from 
a Cut in the Pamphlet) 278 



PAGE 

Bringing Back the Rum. (Copied from a 

Cut in the Pamphlet) 279 

John Pierpout 281 

The Rising Power 284 

Poor White People of the South 285 

William Lloyd Garrison 285 

Garrison's Birthplace 286 

Texas as Claimed by the United States 293 

Texan Rangers 295 

Santa Anna 290 

The Alamo :.".i; 

Samuel Houston 298 

Battle of San Jacinto 299 

Scene of the Seminole War 301 

Martin Van Buren 302 

John Tyler 303 

Lucretia Mott 306 

Fit only to be a Slave 307 

Death of Lovejoy. (From a Print of the 

Times) 310 

Wendell Phillips 311 

Edmund Quincy 312 

Zachary Taylor 314 

Charge of Captain May's Cavalry. (From a 

Print of the Time) 315 

Monterey 317 

Fight in the Streets of Monterey 318 

Battle of Monterey 319 

Route of the Mexican Armies between Vera 

Cruz and the Rio Grande 322 

Battle of Buena Vista 323 

John E. Wool 327 

Winfield Scott 332 

Vera Cruz 383 

Bombardment of Vera Cruz 334 

Route to Mexico 335 

Attack on Cerro Gordo 336 

The American Army Approaching Mex- 
ico 338 

Map of the Lower Valley of Mexico 339 

The Aqueduct '■> 1 1 

Battle of Chcrubusco. (From a Print issued 

in 1848) 343 

Cathedral of Mexico 346 

Palace of Mexico "> 17 

Battle of Molino del Rey. (From a Print 

of the Time) 348 

Chapultepec 349 

Th<- Army in Mexico 350 

Santa F<§ 350 

Acquisition of Territory by the United 
States, 1776-1868. (From the Map of 

S. W. Stocking) 351 

Map of California 354 

John A. Sutter 356 

John Charles Fremont 357 



12 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Where the Gold was Found 358 

Finding Gold 360 

Miuers' Cabins 361 

Map of Puget Sound 364 

Indians Spearing Salmon 366 

Mount Rainer 367 

Mount Baker 368 

Astoria 369 

The Camp at Night 375 

Mystery of the Steelyard 377 

Care for a Sick Indian 378 

Map of Whitman's Route 379 

Scene in Santa Fe 382 

The Mountains 384 

Jerked Meat 385 

Must have their Baskets Full 388 

The Comfortless Cabin 389 

Poor but Proud 390 

Southern Street Scene 391 

Village Tavern aud Stage-coach 392 

A Plantation Team 393 

Millard Fillmore 393 

Hen ry Ward Beecher 396 

Theodore Parker 397 

Franklin Pierce 401 

Death Rather than Slavery 403 

Stephen A. Douglas 408 

Gerrit Smith 409 

Home of Whittier 410 

Charles Sumner 413 

James Buchanan 414 

William H. Seward '. 416 



PAGE 

Their Only Solace 419 

Plantation Scene — a Negro Hut . . . 420 

Talking about Freedom 423 

The Toll-gate 426 

Old Way-side Tavern 428 

George Stephenson 430 

The " Rocket " 431 

S. F. B. Morse 432 

Professor Morse Exhibiting his Electric 

Telegraph 433 

Engine of 1790 — General Washington as a 

Fireman 434 

Moses G. Farmer 435 

Fire Engine, 1854 436 

Benjamin Franklin's Press 437 

" Columbian " Press 437 

Richard M. Hoe 438 

The Perfecting Press 439 

The Prophecy 441 

Bringing Home Another Wife 447 

William Cullen Bryant 453 

Sunny side : Irving' s Home 454 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 456 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 456 

John Greenleaf Whittier 457 

James Russell Lowell 458 

Louis Agassiz 459 

Harper's Ferry 462 

" He Stoops and Kisses the Child " 466 

Abraham Lincoln 471 

Jefferson Davis 472 

Fort Sumter 473 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



CHAPTEK I. 

BEGINNING. 

IN the city of Paris, September 3, 17S3, David Hartley for the King 
of England, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay for the 
United States, signed their names to a treaty of peace between Great 
Britain and the United States, making the thirteen States forever inde- 
pendent. 

The Boys of '76 had fought their last battle. The time had come 
when the red-coated soldiers of the King were to leave the country which, 
for seven years, they had tried to subdue. All through the war, after the 
battle of Long Island, in 1776, the British had held New York — so long 
that the officers felt themselves quite at home ; but the time had come for 
their departure. On November 25, 1783, after nailing the King's flag to 
the top of a tall staff, that it might wave over the city after they were 
gone, they went on board the ships in the harbor and sailed away, past 
Sandy Hook, out upon the ocean, steering for Halifax. While the last of 
them were stepping into their boats, the Americans, with drums beating, 
colors flying, the bright sun glinting from their arms, with General Wash- 
ington in command — Governor Clinton and General Knox by his side, 
their staffs following them — the cavalry, light-infantry, artillery, the Legis- 
lature of New York, and the chief citizens, marched proudly into the city. 

The British flag was still flying; but John Van Arsdale, although only 
sixteen years old, spat on his hands, clasped his arms around the flag-staff, 
drew up his feet, pressed them againsl it, and almost in a twinkling was 
up to the top, tearing away the British flag, and hoisting the Stars and 
Stripes in its place, the great crowd down below tossing their three-cor- 
nered cocked-hats into the air a-cheering, and cannon thundering a salute. 

A few days later and the soldiers were on their way home. They had 



14 



BUILDING THE NATION 



[Chap. I. 



no money. Washington had none to give them, bat the people every- 
where were glad to give them supper and breakfast and dinner, and good 
beds at night. 

The day came (December 4) when Washington was to bid good-bye to 
the officers who had been with him through the long struggle. They met 
for the last time. They had fought side by side, and had conquered. It 
is hard to part forever from those whom we respect, honor, and love. 




DAVID HARTLEY. 



Washington filled a glass with wine and said : " With a heart full of 
love and gratitude I now take leave of you, most devoutly wishing that 
your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones 
have been glorious and honorable." 

They took his hand. There were tears upon his cheek, and the officers 
felt a choking in their throats. Not a word was spoken. They passed 
out-of-doors down to the ferry at Whitehall, between two rows of soldiers, 
who presented arms for the last time to the great commander. Washington 



1783.] 



BEGINNING. 



15 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



stepped into a boat, took off his hat and waved a farewell, and the oars 

of the rowers swept him away to the New Jersey side. 

At noun on the 20th of December he 
stood in the old hail of the State-house at 
Annapolis, in the presence of the Congress 
which had called him from his quiet home 
eight years before to take command of the 
armies of the United States. Now he was 
to resign it. 

" I commend," he said, " the interests of 
our country to the protection of Almighty 
God, and those who have the superintend- 
ence of them to his holy keeping. Having 
finished the work assigned me, and bidding 
an affectionate farewell to this august body 
under whose order I have so long acted, I 

here offer my commission and take leave of all employments of public life." 
He was a citizen once more. So he laid down power, thereby adding 

greatness to his fame. 

No more the beating of drums 

or roar of cannon ; no more weary 

marches or the clash of arms. 

The fighting was over; but the 

people must still be patriots. 

They had a great work before 

them — the formation of a gov- 
ernment, the building of a nation. 
They had won the respect of 

the world as soldiers ; they must 

win it also as citizens. They 

were no longer subjects, but 

equals in their political freedom. 

The King and Parliament had 

made laws for them before they 

began the struggle at Lexington ; 

now they must make laws for 

themselves. No more were kings 

to rule, but they themselves, and 

the minority must obey the majority. They bad won independence, and 

the world was wondering what they would do with it. 




•IIHIN JAY, 



16 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. 1. 

How poor they were ! They had spent one hundred and thirty-live 
million dollars. They had very little money. All trade was by barter or 
exchange. The farmer who had wheat, butter, or cheese to sell took his 
pay at the country store in needles, pins, cloth, sugar, or molasses. The 




THE STATE-HOUSE AT ANNAPOLIS. 



shoemaker who came to make shoes for the farmer's family, bringing his 
bench, lapstone, awls, and waxed thread, took his pay in the hide of the 
ox or the skin of the calf which the farmer had killed ; which he, in turn, 
traded off to the tanner for leather. The paper dollars, or promises to pay, 
which Congress and the several Colonies had issued, were worthless, be- 
cause people had no confidence that Congress or the States ever would be 
able to give silver dollars in exchange for them. 

It is not in human nature to be contented when things go hard with 
us — when we are poor, in debt, creditors crowding, and we have not 
wherewith to pay. 

One of the men who talked against the government, and who advised 
the people not to pay their taxes, was Samuel Ely, who once had started 
to be a minister, and had preached in Connecticut ; but the people discov- 
ered that he was a hypocrite. He stirred up the citizens of Northampton, 
Massachusetts, whereupon the sheriff put him in jail. A mob assembled 
to tear down the building, and General Porter came with troops to protect 



1783.] 



BEGINNING. 



17 



it. "Tear it down!" they shouted. General Porter yielded to their de- 
mands and released Mr. Ely. Things went on from bad to worse. There 
was no silver money to be had. The British merchants had sent over 
ship-loads of goods of all kinds, which the people had purchased — getting 
the merchants to trust them. The merchants called for their pay ; the 
sheriff took possession of the debtors' property, selling their horses, cows, 
and farms. Daniel Shays, who had been a captain in the army, under- 
took to organize a rebellion in Massachusetts, which extended to New 
Hampshire. Crowds of rioters assembled at Worcester, Springfield, and 
other towns, with guns, old swords, and stout sticks. General Lincoln, 
who had fought through the Revolution, came upon them with the militia. 
The rioters suddenly took to their heels, and so was ended the rebellion. 

The States during the Revolution had adopted written constitutions, on 
which all laws were based. 

Congress was very weak. It had little authority, could not enforce 
laws, for the States had only united to defend themselves against the King. 




WASHINGTON RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION. 



They were held together by an agreement, or articles of confederation. 
The clear-headed men saw that, to be a nation, they must have a written 
constitution. 

In 17S7 fifty delegates from the thirteen States met in convention in 
Philadelphia. General Washington was elected President. There were 
perplexing questions. Some of the States were large, others small : ought 



18 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. L 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. [BY TRUMBULL.] 



the small ones to have equal voice with the large ones in government? 
They decided that there should be a Senate and House of Representatives 
— two Senators from each State, no matter what its size or how manv in- 
habitants it contained; but the Representatives were to be elected accord- 
ing to population. 



1787.] BEGINNING. 19 

That vessel which sailed up James River in 1620 with negroes on 
board which had been stolen in Africa, and were sold to the planters at 
Jamestown, now sailed into the Convention. The negroes were several 
hundred thousand. 

The merchants of Newport, Rhode Island, and Boston, before the Rev- 
olution, made a great deal of money by sending their ships to the West 
Indies for molasses, which they transported to Boston and Newport, dis- 
tilled into rum, and then sent the ships with the rum to Africa, where 
they purchased negro slaves, brought them to the West Indies, Charleston, 
Savannah, or Norfolk, sold them to the planters, then loaded their vessels 
with molasses again, to make more rum to send to Africa for another 
cargo of slaves. Few people saw any wrong in it. Negroes were not 
thought of as being men, although colored men had fought under Wash- 
ington to enable the people to gain their freedom. There were not many 
slaves in the Northern States. The people of those States had small 
farms, and could not afford to own slaves. There was not one in Mas- 
sachusetts. In New Hampshire there were only one hundred and fifty- 
eight; in Rhode Island nine hundred and fifty-two; Connecticut had two 
thousand seven hundred and fifty; New York twenty-one thousand ; New 
Jersey eleven thousand; Pennsylvania thirty -seven hundred; Delaware 
nine thousand. 

The Southern States had large numbers — Maryland one hundred and 
three thousand; Virginia two hundred and ninety-three thousand; South 
Carolina one hundred and seven thousand ; Georgia twenty-nine thousand. 
In the Southern States the plantations were large, the climate mild, and 
slaves could be made profitable. 

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin looked hopefully forward to 
a time when slavery would die out in the Southern States, as it was dying 
in the Northern, but the thistle-seed was spreading instead. 

How should the negroes be reckoned under the Constitution ? They 
were not voters, but they were inhabitants, and representatives were to 
be apportioned according to population. 

"Slaves are not citizens; they cannot vote; they ought not to be reck- 
oned," said the delegates from the Northern States. 

"They are inhabitants, and must be counted in," replied the members 
of the Southern States. 

•• North Carolina never will accept the Constitution unless they are 
reckoned at least as three-fifths," said Mr. Davis, from that State. 

"Slavery is a curse," responded Gouverneur Morris, of New York. 
"On what principle are you to reckon them? Are they men? Then 



20 BUILDING THE NATION. 'Chap. I. 

they ought to be citizens and become voters. Are they property? Wliy, 
then, ought not all property— cattle, horses, and hog8 — to he reckoned at 
three-fifths?" 

If a slave should run away from his master to another State, how- 
should he be carried back I 

*• He should be delivered up on claim of the owner/' said the Southern 
Stale.-. They carried their points, and it was written down that the States 
might obtain all the slaves they wanted from Africa for twenty years ; 
that in the apportionment for representation a slave should be reckoned as 
three-fifths of a white man; that it' a slave escaped into another State he 
should be delivered up by that State; that the slave-trade between the 
United States ami Africa should cease in 1808. 

The people of the United States were far in advance of the people of 
any other land in their recognition of the rights of men, but the idea had 
not dawned upon them that negroes had any civil rights, or that slavery 
was wrong. The people of the Northern States, except here and there an 
individual, thought of slavery only as not being profitable. The sentence 
which Thomas Jefferson put into the Declaration of Independence, that all 
men are created free and equal and endowed with inalienable rights, had 
reference to white men ; he was not thinking of negroes. 

All through the summer the delegates discussed the momentous ques- 
tions that came before them, not quite knowing what they wanted. 

"The delegates," wrote Jeremy Belknap, "did not know their own 
minds; they were like a man buying a suit of smallclothes which did not 
lit him. They were too small, and must be let out; too big, and must be 
taken in ; afraid that there would be a hole, and a patch must be put on; 
that the buttons were not strong enough, and others must be substituted." 

The delegates allowed none hut themselves to be present at the delib- 
erations. The world will never know how eloquent or how foolish, al times. 
their talk, or how angry their words. Bui the men who had achieved their 
freedom were wise enough to see thai no man could live to himself alone ; 
that no one State could live by itself; but that something must he given 
up to secure the greatest good of all. They agreed that there should he a 
chief executive officer, who must sign the laws, and see that they were ex- 
ecuted. They created departments of State. Treasury, and War. There 
was to be a second executive officer, who was to preside over the Senate. 
Whal should he the titles of the first and second executives? Kings and 
emperors delight in high-sounding names — as if a title could add to their 
dignity. Henry IV. of England had the title of "Grace." Henry VI. 
called himself "Excellent Grace." Edward IV., not content with that, 



1787.] BEGINNING. 21 

assumed the title of " Most High and Mighty Prince." Henry VIII. was 
" Dread Sovereign." The Pope gave him another title, " Defender of the 
Faith." James I., whom the people called a " wise fool," assumed the 
title of "Sacred and Most Excellent Majesty;" and from that time to the 
present the kings of England have been called "His Majesty," and the 
queens " Her Majesty." Some of the members of the Convention thought 
that the President should be called " His Excellency." 

Benjamin 'Franklin was a member. He hated shams and superfluity, 
and loved truth and simplicity. " In that case," he said, " I suppose, the 
Vice-President ought to be called 'His Most Superfluous Highness.'" 

Sarcasm and ridicule, sometimes, are far more powerful than argu- 
ment. The Convention saw how ridiculous it would be to call the 
President " His Excellency," how inconsistent with the character of a 
government of the people, and voted that he should be called simply 
"The President." 

So that agreement signed in the cabin of the Mayflower (see " Story 
of Liberty "), on a dreary winter day, by the men who had left the Old 
World that they might have liberty to worship God in their own way, and 
not as dictated by King James and the archbishops and bishops of Eng- 
land, or by the Pope at Rome, after a century and a half of struggles and 
privations, blossomed into a written Constitution — the first the world had 
ever seen. 

While the National Convention was discussing the Constitution the 
Cougress of the confederation was in session at New York. Only eight of 
the thirteen States were represented. It passed an ordinance for the gov- 
ernment of the North-west Territory — the great region of country north 
and west of the Ohio River into which men .from Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts were ready to move. 

Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, wrote the paper in which it was de- 
clared that there should be no slaves in the Territory after the year eigh- 
teen hundred, but it also declared that slaves from other States should be 
given up if they escaped into the Territory. The last was a seed which 
brought forth a great crop of thistles sixty years later. The Constitu- 
tion was not to be binding upon the States until adopted by nine of the 
thirteen. 

What would be the effect of the Constitution ? Those who framed it 
were firm in the belief that it would work for the good of the people ; but 
Patrick Henry, of Virginia, who had made patriotic speeches for liberty 
before the Revolution, opposed it. "The President will become a king," 
he said. There was great opposition to it in New York. General Lamb 



22 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. 1. 



and many of the politicians opposed it. Alexander Hamilton, who had 
helped frame it, nsed all of his influence and his great ability to secure 
its adoption by the people of the State. He wrote a remarkable series of 
articles which were published in the newspaper, and afterward in a vol- 
ume entitled "The Federalist." Delaware was the first State to adopt it; 




s » ^ * 1 

f ' ° \ Mr \M£* 

B Z/?\ W ■'^^ \ n BUFFALO 

M w iii nil. NORTH-WEST TERR] I'ukY. 



then Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts. Mary- 
land, South Carolina, and New Hampshire. That made the nine States; 
but Virginia and New York were great States, and unless adopted by 
thorn the Constitution would be a failure. The influence of Washington, 
Madison, and Monroe secured its adoption by Virginia. The people in 
the City of New York were in favor of it; but the Legislature was al- 
most evenly divided. The people in the city determined to have a grand 
celebration, to let the Legislature know how they regarded it. Never, on 
thifl side of the Atlantic, had there been so grand a procession. 

First came a company of cavalry, with trumpeters in advance; then a 
company of artillery, with cannon; then wood-choppers, with their axes; 
then farmer-, with a plough drawn by three yoke of oxen, another team 
dragging a harrow; and other farmers with rakes, pitchforks, and flails. 
Another team drew a newly-invented thrashing-machine. Following were 



1787.] BEGINNING. 23 

the members of the Society of Cincinnati — officers who had fought in the 
Revolution — in their uniform. Then came a company of gardeners wear- 
ing green. After them the tailors, with a band of music. Then the 
bakers, wearing white caps and frocks, and blue sashes, carrying bunches 
of roses tied with red ribbons. Never was there another loaf of bread 
like theirs on a car drawn by ten bay horses. It took a barrel of flour to 
make it, and to bake it they were obliged to build an oven for the pur- 
pose. After the bakers came the brewers, with casks of ale. On one of 
the casks stood a boy with a silver goblet to represent the old god Bac- 
chus. This was the first division of the procession. 

The coopers headed the second division — thirteen boys in advance, 
wearing white frocks and trousers, with green ribbons tied around their 
ankles. After them came forty-two men, their hats decorated with oak- 
leaves. In a wagon, drawn by four horses, four coopers were at work on 
an old cask, representing the old Confederation, which kept tumbling to 
pieces ; by its side was a new cask, which represented the Constitution, 
which, the more they pounded it, became all the stronger. After the 
coopers were the butchers, in their white frocks, with a meat-stall on a car, 
and a fat ox following, with ribbons on his horns. Next came the tanners, 
curriers, skinners, glove, waistcoat, and leather breeches and parchment 
makers ; rope-makers ; three hundred and forty shoemakers, some of them 
at work on their benches, in a wagon ; two hundred carpenters, with their 
saws, and planes; the furriers, with an Indian leading a horse. Two bears 
sat on a pile of furs on the horse's back. Another Indian, wearing a scar- 
let blanket, smoked a tomahawk pipe. Hatters and wig-makers followed ; 
and the confectioners, carrying a great loaf four and a half feet in diame- 
ter made of sugar, and a great cake. 

After them came the stone-masons, with the Temple of Fame on a car 
— a building representing the United States. It had thirteen pillars — ten 
of them in place, the other three ready to be reared. On those in place 
was the motto : 

" The foundation is firm — the materials good, 
Each pillar's cemented with patriots' blood." 

The upholsterers came with a gorgeous canopy, nineteen feet high, of 
blue satin, hung with gold and silver fringe, beneath which stood the God- 
dess of Liberty. The lace and fringe weavers bore a banner with this 

inscription : 

" Never let it perish, but piously transmit it to your children." 

The blacksmiths and nail-makers had a bellows, forge, and anvil on a 
car, and while the procession was moving kept the bellows roaring and 



24 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. I. 

the anvil ringing. They forged an anchor. Above them waved a banner 
with this inscription : 

"Forge me strong, finish me neat : 
I soon shall moor a Federal fleet." 

The printers had a printing-press; the tinsmiths and copper-makers, a 
tin house — ten pillars in place, three wanting; above them the motto: 

" When three more pillars rise 
Our Union will the world surprise." 

This the motto of the dyers: 

"Glory to God." 

The tallow-chandlers carried thirteen huge candles, ten burning, three 
not lighted. All the trades and arts and societies were in the procession. 
Learned men — judges, Congress, clergymen, physicians, scholars — were in 
the procession, carrying a blue flag with this motto: 

" United we stand, divided we fall." 

But grandest feature of all was the Ship of State. Who first likened 
tin nation to a ship, no one knows, but there it was — a frigate, with three 
masts, yard, bowsprit, rigging, sails, thirty sailors on deck, boys up in the 
rigging, the stars and stripes at the mast-head — all on a huge car drawn 
by ten stout horses. On its stern the name of Hamilton. 

Down Broadway moved the procession — drums beating, banners wav- 
ing, people cheering. Out in the river lies a Spanish war-ship; suddenly 
her cannon are run out and the Ship of State receives its first national 
salute of thirteen guns. The sailors on board the Hamilton respond to 
the honor with their cannon. 

< hit in the fields beyond Canal Street five thousand people ate dinner, 
and in the evening there was a grand display <>f fireworks. 

The members <>f the Assembly who had opposed the Constitution saw 
what the people thought" of it ; they could no longer resist. It was adopted 
1>\ New York— leaving only North Carolina and Rhode Island. They 
aho adopted it, to try the first experiment in history of a Union of States, 
a government of the people, with a written Constitution. 

Who Bhonld be President? Who hut George Washington? Every- 
body reverenced him, had confidence in him. and the people unanimously 
elected him. John Adams, of Massachusetts, was chosen Vice-President. 

(Mi April 16th, L 789, Washington left Mount Vernon for New York to 
enter upon iiis duties. He wished to travel quietly, but crowds welcomed 
him in every town. lie rode beneath triumphal arches, and fair maidens 



1787.] 



BEGINNING. 



25 



strewed flowers in his path. He crossed from New Jersey to New York 
it) an elegant barge manned by thirteen ship-masters, in white uniforms. 
The ferry stairs were hung with crimson. The best carpet in the city was 
none too good for him to walk upon as he landed. Military companies 
escorted him along the streets. Never before has been heard the strain of 
music which crashes upon the air from fife, clarionet, bassoon, trumpet, and 
drum. The band-master Phyla, leader of the orchestra at the theatre in 
John Street, has composed it for the occasion. He has named it " Wash- 
ington's March." Little does he know how it will go down the ages and 
become one of the hymns of the nation, the "Hail, Columbia!" of the 
Republic which the people are about to establish. This is the melody to 
which the people keep step as they march to inaugurate Washington Pres- 
ident of the first constitutional government in the New World : 



Washington's Maech. 



§l=S=^^Ei^ilES^i 



a&s 



-0- . -5- • * 5- -m- ^m- ** * ^ -»- -»- 



I H-4& — | n 



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g==3==fe§3s^i»si 



:p— m — *=m 



U=z &=& — U!-J-U =zU=fea= 



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.5 — h= J-<^ — fc -j c^ ^ 





l — *= T. j. ^l +-^-*£-**—iL — ^ — £— t* — 6i - :, -^r-~!P=-> c 



giz=g=g— gz3 _, »_ g==tgi=rg:r: g=gzj=— — — g - I 






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^^^=!=a^=^S=^§^3^2= 



?F*-£S : 






--S--T— *-" 



^^ 



I J^iliiilp^l^^^^s^l 



26 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. I. 



Flags wave from every window, not only the stars and stripes, but 
the flags of all nations — from window, door-way, and the roofs of houses. 
Never has there been such a gathering of people in the western hemi- 
sphere. Hotels, private houses, all are full. Fields and pastures are thick 
with tents. People from the country spend the night wrapped in blankets 
beneath their wagons. 

The great day came, April 30th, on which Washington was to be in- 
augurated. At nine o'clock in the morning all the church bells rung, and 
the multitude thronged the meeting-houses while prayer was offered that 
the blessing of Almighty (iod might rest upon the people, and upon the 
President whom they had chosen. Once more the military paraded and 
marched in procession to Federal Hall, where, upon the balcony, in pres- 
ence of a great multitude, filling Broadway and Pearl Street, thronging 
every window, and standing upon all the house-tops, the President swore 
to uphold the Constitution, kissing the Bible to manifest his sincerity. 

"It is done." The Chancellor who had administered the oath said it, 
and up from the multitude, swelling in mighty chorus, came the shout, 
"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" 

With the uttering of that solemn oath the Republic took its place 
among the nations. 




mi.ili \\ iSHINQTON \\ IS IN a i (.1 EM I Bl 



1788.] 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



27 



CHAPTER II. 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



A RICH and fertile soil, great rivers, dark forests of oak, hickory, and 
maple, beavers building their dams along the streams, the woods full 
of game, deer, buffalo, and wild turkeys — that was the Ohio country. 
Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, of Boston ; General Ruf us Put- 
nam, General Parsons, of Connecticut; and General Varnura, who fought 
bravely during the Revolution, formed a company, purchased five million 
acres of land from Congress, made their way over the Alleghany Moun- 
tains on sleds in winter, and, just as the trees were putting forth their 
leaves in the spring of 1788, floated down the Ohio River in boats, landed 
at a beautiful spot where the wild flowers were in bloom, and made a 
settlement, which they named Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, 
Queen of France. It was the first settlement in Ohio. They built a fort, 
which they named Campus Martins. 




CAMPUS MARTIUS. 



They agreed upon laws for their own government, wrote them out, 
and nailed the paper upon which they were written to a tree. It was the 
beginning of a new State. Congress had given them no authority to make 



2S 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. II. 



laws, but they exercised their natural rights. They elected Mr. Meigs 
Governor. His full name was Return Jonathan Meigs. Be was only 
twenty-two years old, but his was an old head on young shoulders. His 
mother named him Return Jonathan, because when she was a maiden in 
Connecticut, and Jonathan Meigs came to ask her to be bis wife, she -aid 
"No;" but the next moment was sorry, ran after him, and cried, "Return, 
Jonathan I 1 ' and he went back and she became Mrs. Meigs, and was so 
glad that she married him that she named her first baby Return Jonathan. 
He had been to Yale College, was a lawyer, and now Governor of this 
new settlement. 

AYhile the men of Connecticut were building their fort at Marietta, 
John Cleves Syinmes, of New Jersey, with a company of men, floated 
down the Ohio and made a settlement at the month of the little Miami 
River, which they called Columbia. A hunter had built a cabin on a 
beautiful plot of ground, with high hills behind it, opposite the mouth of 
Licking River. He called the place Losantiville. Congress had sent Ma- 
jor Luce with a party of soldiers to build a fort at the mouth of the little 




' kSHINGTON, ON OIK SITE OF CINCINNATI. 



Miami; but the hunter at Losantiville had a wife, whose beauty captivated 
Major Luce, and to be near her he built the tort at that place, naming it 
Fori Washington, which has become the < 'ity of ( lincinnati. 

People' all through New England heard of the beautiful and rich 
Ohio country, left their homes, made their way to Pittsburg, built boats, 



1786.] 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



29 




DEPARTURE OF IMMIGRANTS. 



and descended the stream — twenty thousand of them — between 1787 and 
17S9. The President appointed General Arthur St. Clair, the soldier of 
the Revolution, Governor. 

Who owned the country — the Indians, the United States, or Great 
Britain? The Indians claimed the hunting-grounds had always been 
theirs. They had roamed the woods 
at will. They never had ploughed 
the ground, but only scratched it 
with a stick. They never had sub- 
dued it, as God commanded Adam 
to do when he placed him in Eden. 
That was Adam's title-deed. The 
white men had come to subdue it — 
to live on the fruits of the earth — 
not by hunting and fishing. In the 
treaty with Great Britain the United 
States were to have the country be- 
yond the Ohio, but British troops 
were still in the forts along the Mau- 
mee, at Detroit and Mackinaw. Sir 
Guy Carleton, who had become Lord Dorchester, was Governor of Canada. 

" The country does not belong to the Americans, but to you. The 
Ohio River is the boundary," he said to the Indians, and sold them guns, 
powder, and rum. The savages, set on by Lord Dorchester and British 
officers, stole through the forests, and whenever they came upon an Amer- 
ican hunter shot him down and took his scalp. They crept upon the 
settlers at work, fired upon them from behind trees, shot their wives and 
children, and burnt their cabins. 

There were several forts along the river — Fort Ilarmar, at the mouth 
of Muskingum River; the fort at Marietta; Fort Washington, at Cincin- 
nati; Fort Steuben, at Jeffersonville, Indiana; Fort Vincennes, on the 
Wabash River, which the French had built before they were driven from 
Canada. The President sent General Ilarmar, with fourteen hundred 
men, to punish the Indians. 

He started from Cincinnati. His troops made their way through the 
dark forests to the Maumee River, where the Indians had several villages. 
The Indians fled, and the soldiers set their wigwams on fire. Colonel 
Hardin, with a portion of the troops, followed on. Suddenly rifles were 
clacking around them, and twenty-two soldiers were shot down. Colonel 
"ardin was full of fight, and persuaded General Ilarmar to make a night 



3D 



BUILDIXt; THE NATION. 



I.Ciiap. IL 




KOKT HARMAR. 



march and attack the Indian town which stood on the bank of the river 
opposite the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Major Hall, with some 
of the troops, was sent across the river to get in rear of the Indians, while 
General Ilarmar and Major Wyllys, with the remainder, in two columns, 

were to fall upon the town. 

The troops picked their way 
through the woods by the light 
of the stars. Everything prom- 
ised success : but Major Hall, dis- 
covering an Indian, tired at him, 
which alarmed the whole Indian 
encampment. The battle began, 
the Indians tiring from behind 
trees and from the thick under- 
brush. The soldiers began to 
fall. They saw only Hashes and 
puffs of smoke, and occasionally 
a dusky form. 

The party under Hall was 
cut t<> pieces. The men under 
Ilarmar, hearing the Sad news, grew pale, lost their courage, refused to 
march; and General Ilarmar, having lost two hundred, fell hack to Cin- 




II M.I. .- CROSSING-PI m l . 



1791.] 



FIRST YEAKS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



31 



cinnati ; while the Indians, though they had lost many warriors, flourished 
their seal ping-knives and tomahawks and celebrated their grand victory. 

General Scott, of Ken- 
tucky, with eight hundred 
men on horseback, made 
a quiet march into the 
country, killed thirty-two 
Indians, and destroyed 
some of their towns; and 
General Wilkinson left 
Cincinnati and destroyed 
many of their villages ; 
which made them all the 
more bloodthirsty and re- 
lentless. General St. Clair 
was Governor of Ohio. It 
was he whom Burgoyne 
compelled to evacuate Ti- 

conderoga in 1777. He marched with two thousand men to give battle to 
the Indians. "I caution you against being surprised," said Washington, 
whom the Indians were never able to surprise. It was a calm and peace- 
ful September evening when his soldiers spread their blankets on the 
bank of a little stream. They had seen signs of Indians during the day, 




Alt, &~A-.t,_ 




PLACE OF HARMAR's DEFEAT. 



32 



BU1LI>IN<; THE NATION'. 



[Chap. II. 



but St. Clair was not expecting to be attacked — lie had come to attack. 
The morning of the 24th of September was calm and clear. The troops 
were :it breakfast, when suddenly they heard the terrible howling of two 
thousand Indians, under Chief Little Turtle and a cruel white man, Simon 
Girty. Verv few of the men under St. Clair had ever been in battle; 




Avniiiw \\.\i\i. 



many of them turned pale at the fearful outer}'. 1 Juliets were flying, 
the men tailing, but the soldiers rallied and fired resolutely. The Indians 
quickly picked off the gunners of the four cannon. St. Clair was very 
brave; three horses were killed beneath him, eight bullet- passing through 
his clothes. For three hour.- the battle went on, till nearly half of his 
men were killed or wounded, when he ordered a retreat, which became 
a panic — the men throwing away their guns, ammunition, everything that 



1794.] 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



33 



could hinder them ; the Indians taking possession of cannon, wagons, pro- 
visions — everything — and dancing in wild delight over their great victory. 
President Washington sent commissioners to make peace with the Indians ; 
but the British general, Simcoe, sent word to them not to give up their 
lands, and the commissioners returned without accomplishing anything. 

Anthony Wayne was appointed Governor of Ohio. " Mad Anthony " 
people called him, because he was so daring in battle. It was he who 
led the troops in the midnight attack on Stony Point, as narrated in the 
" Boys of '76." The Indians were still murdering and scalping settlers 
and burning their cabins. Wayne resolved to put an end to it once and 
forever. He assembled an army of three thousand men. Through the 
winter of 1793 the soldiers were drilled. General Wayne knew the value 
of disciplined troops. In July he was on the march. He understood 
the Indians, and was ever on the watch against being surprised. He 
sent a messenger to them with kind words offering peace, but the British 
officers in the forts on the Maumee advised the Indians to fight. Wayne 
marched on — his army so arranged, with videttes out on all sides, that the 
Indians could not surprise him. 

On the banks of the Maumee River, above the rapids, twelve miles 
from Lake Erie, the Indians gathered to fight. They secreted themselves 
behind the trees. Their chief, whose Indian name was Me-sa-sa, but 
whose English name was Turkey -foot, secreted himself behind a large 
rock. There were nearly three thousand warriors, besides some British 
and Canadians. The Indians fired a volley and yelled the war-whoop. 
The soldiers were expecting it, and in- 
stead of turning pale and taking to 
their heels, fired steadily, driving the In- 
dians from their hiding-places. When 
they began to run Turkey-foot jumped 
upon the rock, shouting to them to stop, 
but the next moment he leaped into 
the air and fell dead. The Indians, 
seeing him fall, lost their courage and 
fled panic-stricken through the woods. 
When the battle was over some of them 
returned and chiselled figures of a tur- 
key's foot in the rock, to show their 
love and admiration for their fallen 
chief. General Wayne burnt all their 
wigwams, destroyed the corn they had planted, and inflicted such a blow 




PLAN OF liATTLE. 



34 



nriLi>i.\<; Tin: nation. 



[Chap. II. 



that they had no heart to fight any longer. They made a treaty of peace, 
and the British, by a new treaty between the United States and (Treat 
Britain, evacuated all the forts in the North-west Territory. With peace 
secured, a great tide of settlers poured over the Alleghanies and took 




TURKEY-FOOT ROCK. 



possession of the fair domain, transforming the forests into fields of wav- 
ing grain, making it blossom with towns, villages, school - houses, and 
churches. 

The people of the United States numbered 3,660,000. They owed a 
great deal of money, and to pay the debt of the nation Congress established 
a tariff taxing goods brought from other countries and the vessels of other 
countries bringing them. A law was passed taxing the manufacture of 
whiskey, which made the whiskey-drinkers of Pennsylvania very angry. 
They organized a rebellion, but when the troops were sent against them 
they quickly disbanded. The majority of the people accepted the law 
which they themselves had made through their representatives in Congress. 

The plan for raising money was devised by Alexander Hamilton, and 
was approved by Washington and John Adams, but it was opposed by 
Thomas Jefferson. It was the beginning of a great conflict of ideas, 
which, though nearly a century has passed, is not yet ended. Free gov- 
ernments are based on ideas. It is well for the human race that men do 
not all think alike, for if there were no diversity of opinion there would he 
little progress. Washington, Adams, and Hamilton wanted Congress and 
the President to have much more power over the States than Jefferson did, 



17«J4.] 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



who was afraid that if the States yielded any of their power Congress 
would become tyrannical. Those who agreed with Jefferson were called 
Republicans, those who agreed w T ith Washington and Hamilton and Adams 
were called Federalists. 





^'1I| 



MBBKmm^ 






* mmmtm 



pzy£siJrjJl 



GENERAL WAYNES HOME. 



The Republicans accused the Federalists of desiring to overthrow the 
Republic and set up a monarchy. They slandered Washington by report- 
ing that he wished to become a king, and were greatly offended because, 
when elected President, he returned no visits and maintained a courtly 
etiquette; lie believed that the Chief Magistrate of the nation, as repre 
senting the sovereignty of the people, should be treated with due respect 
and honor. He rode in a coach drawn by six horses, and he needed them, 
for it was a heavy, lumbering affair. Two footmen rode behind. When 
he walked the streets his body-servant in livery followed him at a respect- 
ful distance. ■ People could not run into his house and shake hands with 



36 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. 1L 



hiin at all hours, but only on Tuesday after ns from three to four 

o'clock. All of which gave great offence to the Republicans. 




DRAWING-ROOM, WAYNE HOMESTJ Mr 



The Republicans were also offended because Mrs. Washington held re- 
ceptions which were confined to persons connected with the government 
aud their families, foreign ministers, and ladies and gentlemen of refined 
society. The guests must appear in full dress. Mrs. Washington stood 
upon a dais, and the guests bowed and courtesied when presented. 

The etiquette was distasteful to the President and Mrs. Washington. 
"I think that I am a state prisoner," he wrote to a friend. lie submitted 
to it because the President was the head of the nation. 

The Federalists accused tin- Republicans of having little regard for 



1794.] 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



37 



law and order; of degrading the majesty of law. Thomas Jefferson and 
other leading Republicans paid little attention to dress. If a gentleman 
wore good clothes the Republicans said that he was an aristocrat and a 
Federalist. They wanted the President accessible to everybody, and main- 
tained that the man who held office, wore good clothes, and moved in the 
most refined circles of society, was no better and should be entitled to no 
more privileges than the man who worked for his daily bread, and who 
could not afford to wear costly clothing. A man was a man. There was 




WASHINGTON AND HIS SERVANT. 



a war of words, much bitterness of feeling, but the people had no time to 
attend to etiquette. They were laving the foundations of a new empire; 
attending to their own affairs. They believed in law and order, and were 
ready to sustain the President in his efforts to execute tlic laws. 



3S 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. II. 




i|\i, A HALL 



The financial plan thought out by Hamilton became popular. The 
people saw that in time the money collected on goods and vessels from 
other countries would not only pay the expense of government, but would 

]>a\ "ft the debl of the nation. 



1794.] 



FIRST YEARS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



41 



The promises to pay issued by the government, which people thought 
were good for nothing, began to have a value. They rose so rapidly that 
men who had been poor found that they were well off as to property. Be- 
fore the adoption of the Constitution, if a man in New York owed money 
in Massachusetts, and did not want to pay, he could snap his fingers in the 
face of his creditors, who had no way of collecting it. To secure justice, 
Congress established a court for the whole nation, and John Jay, of New 
York, was appointed Chief-justice; but 
instead of sitting as judge, he went to 
England on a special mission, and Oliver 
Ellsworth, of Connecticut, became the 
first acting Chief- justice. 

To provide bank-notes, which should 
be good anywhere in the country, Con- 
gress granted a charter for a bank, with 
ten million dollars capital. Jefferson 
and the Republican party opposed it, as 
an institution that would be dangerous 
to the liberties of the people. 

With a written Constitution, with just 
and equal laws for all the people, with 
industry and thrift, come prosperity. The lumbermen levelled the forests. 
Along the bays and harbors of New England ship-carpenters were swing- 
ing their axes, building vessels for the merchants of Portsmouth, Salem, 
Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Up and down 
the Atlantic, to the West Indies, to England, France, through the Straits 
of Gibraltar, to the ports of Italy, sailed their« ships, signalling to the people 
of the Old World the rise of the new Republic. 

2* 




OLIVER ELLSWORTH. 



42 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. In. 



CHAPTER III. 

TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 

r |MIE people of America were setting the world a great example by 
-L ruling themselves wisely under a written Constitution. They had 
established a government on intelligence, justice, the equal rights of all; 
on virtue, morality, and religion. 

We teach by example. The people of France saw that the citizens of 
the United States were making their own laws, electing their own rulers, 
respecting and obeying them as representing the grand idea of law and 
order. France had sent her fleets and soldiers to help the United States 
gain their independence, and the people of that country were greatly 
moved by the example. They were living under a government which had 
come down from the feudal ages. The King could do as he pleased — 
make war, raise armies, build fleets and tax the people, to gratify his am- 
bition, revenge, or love of applause. 

Louis XIV. and Louis XV. used to send men to prison who were 
charged with no crime, keeping them in dark and gloomy dungeons till 
they became old and gray-haired, or till death set them free. 

Of all the gloomy prisons in France, the gloomiest and most horrible 
was the Bastile, in Paris. Its walls were nine feet thick, one hundred 
high, towering far above all surrounding houses. It could be reached 
only by a drawbridge over a wide, deep ditch. The door was of oak. 
seven inches thick, bolted through and through with iron. It swung on 
massive, creaking hinges, and was fastened with bolts, bars, and chains, and 
a hnge lock. Dark, deep, damp the dungeons, dripping ever with water. 
alive with vermin. Beneath the floor of stone were darker, deeper, gloom 
ier vaults. No stairway led down to them. They were called oubliettes. 
The architect who planned the Bastile took a bottle for hi.- model in con- 
structing them. The neck was at the top just large enough to receive a 
victim. They were twenty-two feel deep. No straggling ray of light 
ever entered them. The floor was knee-dee]) with mud and slime, and 
the bones of victims who had been dropped into them, through the cen- 
turies to die of starvation. 



1789.] TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 43 

The King could put whom he pleased into this horrible prison. He 
issued lettres de cachet — orders for arrest of individuals — and the sheriff 
hustled them into the Bastile without trial. No court could help them. 
Once within the dungeons, they were dead to the world. Louis XV. signed 
his name to blank letters and gave them to his friends and mistresses to 
fill in as they pleased the names of those whom they wished to punish. 
During his reign more than 150,000 such warrants were signed by him. 

lie wanted money, and demanded $120,000 of M. Massot. 

" I cannot pay it." 

" Into the Bastile with him !" 

The sheriff executed the order, and seized the money. 

M. Catalan was very rich. The King issued an order for his arrest. 
He was put into the Bastile, and did not get out till he handed over 
$1,200,000! It was a gay banquet which the King gave to his courtiers 
and their mistresses at Versailles 'with the money thus obtained — a ban- 
quet which cost $200,000 ! 

Madame de Pompadour ruled France through Louis XV. Woe to 
him who aroused her displeasure. M. Latnde, twenty years old, offended 
her, and she determined that he should feel her power. The great door 
of the Bastile closed upon him. The years went on. Great battles were 
fought — all the lighting at Ticonderoga, on the Plains of Abraham, at 
Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Yorktown ; the United States became a nation ; 
Madame Pompadour, the King, went down to the grave; and M. Latnde 
the while, till 1784, was a prisoner in the Bastile ! 

Louis XVI., who came to the throne in 1774, who helped America 
gain her independence, issued during the eighteen years of his reign four- 
teen thousand orders of arrest. He was kind-hearted; but it was the work- 
ing of the old feudal system of government which gave him all power 
over the liberties and lives of the people. 

For sixty years Louis XV., weak, mean, and wicked, had plundered 
the people of France. He regarded France as. his property, the people 
as his subjects, to be slaughtered in battle, to work for his benefit and 
pleasure. The great men, the nobility, were his servants. Every morning 
they gathered in the palace at Versailles to help him dress for the day — 
one to hold the wash-bowl ; another to hand him a towel ; the third to 
pass him his shirt. If they wanted money he supplied them out of the 
royal revenue. He cared nothing for the welfare or happiness of the 
people. He knew that he was hurrying the country to ruin ; but little 
cared he. " After us the deluge," he s;iid. 

The noblemen, the bishops, priests, officers of the army and navy, the 



44 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



(Chap. IIL 







judges — all the great families — paid no taxes, but received greal revenues 
from the people. The nobility had nothing to do except to eat, drink, 
attend balls or hnnting-parties, and play cards. They lived in line cha- 
teaus. They had beautiful parks, gardens, and hunting-grounds. The 
laws were in their interest and againsl the people. They owned all the 
corn-mills. The people were not allowed to use the free winds of heaven 
to turn a null of their own, but they must carry their corn to the mill 
owned by the seigneur, that he might take toll from the grist. The people 
could gather no fagots blown by the wind from the trees; they could not 
even gather the weeds from the roadside to heat their ovens, but must take 



1789.] 



TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 



45 




their flour to the seigneur's bakery to be baked into bread. Poor bread it 
was. There were rabbits in the warren, but they belonged to the master 
of the estate ; they might eat the 

poor man's cabbage, but what eared -%fe^ 

the seigneurs ? There were hogs in 
the woods which rooted up the poor 
man's garden, but the poor man 
could not kill them. The seigneurs 
and their friends alone had the right 
of hunting. The tax-collectors came 
several times a year to the poor man's 
home, never to the chateau. Of ev- 
ery sixteen dollars produced from 
the land by the hard-working peas- 
ants, the King and the Church took 
ten, the nobleman who owned the 
land five, leaving one for the poor 
man and his family! 

The world was moving toward 
a new era — a new civilization. In 
1767, after the people of New York 

and New England, with the troops under General Amherst and General 
Wolfe, drove the French out of Canada, the British Government under- 
took to tax the colonies without their consent. Then came the throwing 
of the tea overboard in Boston Harbor — the resistance which led up to 
Lexington and Bunker Hill. During those years Voltaire and Kousseau, 
and other learned men, were writing and speculating about liberty and 
equal rights. The pamphlets written by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas 
Paine were published in France. The people of that country began to 
see that they were oppressed by two distinct tyrannies — by the King, and 
by the bishop and archbishop. The King contracted great debts. Men 
who lent him money had hard work to get their pay. He sent men to the 
Bastile without any warrant. If a creditor were clamorous for his pay the 
sheriff could hustle him off to the gloomy prison, and that was the end of 
it. The King set the example for the nation in extravagance and vice. 
Minister, judge, general, became as depraved as he; all had their price; 
all plundered as they had opportunity. 

The Church was as corrupt as the King. It owned a great deal of the 
best land, but paid no taxes, which made it all the worse for the people. 
The bishops and priests lived luxuriously on the revenue wrung from the 



46 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. III. 



people by charging fees for every rite and service — baptism, marriage, 

burial, and masses for the dead. From the cradle to the grave the 
people must continue to give to the Church if they were to expect any 
happiness in this world or the next. Man}' of the priests were living 
corrupt lives, giving the lie to all their professions. They were hypocrites 
— wolves in sheep's clothing; and by the wit, sneers, sarcasm of Voltaire 
and Rousseau the people began to lose respect for the Church and faith 
in religion. 

Louis XVI. was amiable but weak. He helped the United States 
gain their independence, not because he cared for the liberty of the peo- 
ple of America, but to spite England for having wrenched Canada from 
France. The harvests were bad in France, not alone because the sun 
did not shine, or because there was little rain, but because those who 

owned the great estates were doing nothing 
to enrich their lands. They were exacting 
all they could from the peasants and spend- 
ing it in Paris. The peasants were becoming 
poorer; bread was dearer. In July, 1788, 
there came a hail-storm over Northern France, 
destroying twenty million dollars' worth of 
grain. There were hordes of beggars, so 
hungry that they fought witli the dogs for a 
bone to gnaw. The poor creatures could gel 
no work, and began to steal. The peasants 
could not pay their taxes, and the sheriff sold 
their goods and marched them off to prison. 
The famishing people in the towns, becom- 
ing desperate, made a rush upon the bakeries, seizing the bread, ripping 
open the sacks, mid helping themselves to flour. They plundered the 
farmers on their way to market, and the consequence was that the. farm- 
ers stayed at home, and the people in the cities became hungrier than 
ever. 

The people of France saw that the American- had established a gov- 
ernment which recognized no king or bishop — a government in which 
the people elected their rulers, and thai the people of the United States 
were prosperous and happy. Why should not France be happy also? 

"Vive la liberteM" The starving people of the city of Nantes shout- 
ed it on June It. 17 v.i, and rushed upon the bakers' shops and helped 
themselves to bread. Bread-riots broke out in other towns. Something 
must be done. 




LOUIS XVI. 



1789.] 



TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 



47 



, The Government of France was supposed to consist of three Chambers 
— the Nobles, the Clergy, and the Commons — but for one hundred and 
seventy years the Bourbon kings had ruled as they pleased without con- 
sulting the Chambers. Louis XVI. was obliged to call them now; and 
on May 5, 1789, they met at Versailles — twelve hundred in all. They 
met in a great hall — the King, the Queen, their children, on a gorgeous 
throne, brilliant with purple and gold. Next below were the Nobles, in 




THE THREE ORDERS. 



gold-laced coats and nodding plumes; then the Clergy — the archbishops 
and bishops, magnificent in scarlet and gold ; below them were the six 
hundred Commons, in plain clothes. The Nobles and Clergy looked 
down upon the representatives of the people, and they had a cunningly 
devised plan to outvote them. It was the old plan of feudal times— -not 
for each member to vote, but for one man to represent each order when 
they came to voting, so that the Nobles and Clergy by uniting could al- 
ways outvote the Commons. Lafayette presented to the Assembly a Dec;- 



4:8 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. II«. 



laration of Rights almost exactly like that which Thomas Jefferson wrote 

when the United States declared themselves independent in 1775 — that 
all men are free and equal. It was Jefferson who aided Lafayette in 
preparing it. 

Men who have had long lease of power do not like to lay it down. 
The bishops and nobles had no intention of allowing the people to rule 
themselves; they had told the King that he must bring an army to Ver- 
sailles to put down the Commons and the people, and the army had come. 
It was on Saturday, July 11, that Lafayette presented the Declaration 
of Rights. Sunday came. Troops were marching. It was whispered 
that the Commons were to be dispersed, and the people mowed down by 
cannon if they made any disturbance. A great crowd assembled in 
the Palais Royal garden. " What is to be done ?" they asked. 



*=v 




CAMILLE DESMOUL1NS. 



A young man. with a pistol in each hand to defend himself, jumped 
upon one of the tables where the people were accustomed to sip 
their wine. "To arms! to arms! we must defend ourselves!" he shout- 
ed. It was Camille Desmoulins. He plucked a green leaf from the 
horse-chestnut-tree above him and put it in his hat-band for a plume. 
The people took up the cry: "To arms! to arms!" And women plucked 
the chestnut-leaves and put them in their hats. They had no arms, but 



1789.] 



TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 



41) 



there were muskets and cannon in the Hotel des Invalides. They broke 
it open and armed themselves. "Down with the Bastile!" The cry rung 
through the streets. A great multitude gathered, rushed to the gloomy 
prison, planted their cannon to batter down the gate. The Swiss 
Guards within fired upon them ; the cannon thundered. Men were shot 




SACKING THE ARSENAL. 



down. The French Guards in the Bastile were heart and soul with the 
people. They hung out a white flag, and the prison was surrendered. A 
duke rode to Versailles with the news. 

" It is a revolt," said the King. 

"It is a revolution," replied the duke. 

" I will order the troops away," said the King. He issued the order, 
but the "deluge" had come. Blood-thirsty men were roaming the streets 
of Paris, murdering men and women of noble birth. The National As- 
sembly ordered the Bastile to be torn down, and the people levelled it 
to the ground. 

The National Assembly, imitating the example of the United States, 



50 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



LChai*. m. 



made a written constitution. But the people of France knew very little as 
to what constitutional freedom is. They thought that government must 
do everything; themselves nothing, except to run the government. De- 
signing, wicked, blood-thirsty men planned to put themselves in power. 




TAKING OF THE BASTILE. — [FROM an OLD PRINT.] 

They were ignorant and brutal. They determined to get rid of all past 
things, ;tn<l to begin a new era. All through the cent uric- bishops and 
priests had been heaping up money for the Church, until the property of 

I hurcl' was worth $400, ,000, and yielded sl5,000,000 revenue 

every year. The bishops and prelates were living in luxury, while the 



1789.] 



TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 



51 



people were starving. The Church owned one-third of the soil of France. 
" The property belongs to the people," said the National Assembly, and 
took it for the use of the State. 

The great estates held by the seigneurs were divided into small farms. 
It was a great change. The people thought that they had obtained their 
rights and liberties. How delightful it was! They stopped work and 
roamed the streets singing, and shouting " Liberty and equality !" 

There were two parties in the National Assembly. The deputies from 
the Province of Gironde, in South-western France, were intelligent men. 
They were ardent patriots. Their leader, Brissot, wished to secure freedom 
without violence or bloodshed. Those who sided with him were called 
Girondists. 

The men who wanted to sweep away all old things formed a club. 
There were about forty of them at the beginning, and they took the name 
of the " Breton Club " at first, but they are known in history as the 




CLUB-HOUSE OF THE JACOBINS. [FROM AN OLD PRINT.] 

Jacobins. When Innocent III. was Pope of Eome, in 1215, Dominic de 
Guzman formed an order of friars to put down heretics. They wore black 
gowns, and in England were called the Black-friars — in France, Jaco- 
bins. The Breton Club held its meetings in a building which the Jaco- 
bins formerly used, and the people soon became accustomed to call them 



52 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. HL 

Jacobins. They held secret meetings to lay plots against the government. 
They were for cutting off the heads of the nobles and confiscating their 
property. Dr. Joseph Ignatius Guillotin invented a machine for cutting 
off heads. " It will do it so quick that you will not know it," he said. 

The Jacobins hated bishops, the Church, the nobles. They had no be- 
lief in God or immortality. The nation had lost its faith in all religion 
through the terrible oppression of the Roman Catholic Church, the in- 
iquities and wickedness of the cardinals, bishops, and all the high-born 
prelates, who plundered the people and lived scandalous lives. The Jaco- 
bins were determined to root out the Church and all connected with it. 

A great rabble of vagabonds had hastened to Paris, to be where there 
was so much excitement. Bread was growing more scarce. The cry goes 
up that the aristocrats intend to starve the people. It is on October 5. 
1789, that a woman seizes a drum and begins to beat it. "Bread ! bread !" 
cry the rabble. A great crowd gathers, hastens to the Hotel de Ville. 
The women make a rush upon the National Guards at the door. Behind 
the women are men with swords and hatchets. The Guards give way, the 
crowd rush in, seize the guns, pistols, and cannon. 

"To Versailles!" is the cry, and the rabble-women, with great brawny 
arms, uncombed hair, rough men in rags, march down the street shouting, 
" Bread ! bread !" A drummer leads them. They drag a cannon. One 
woman mounts it and waves a sword, and the thousands pass on shouting, 
"Bread! bread!" They reach Versailles — cut down the Guards in the 
King's palace. Lafayette, commander of the Guards, is there ; and in their 
madness the ruffians are ready to kill him. Not only the King but the 
National Assembly must go to Paris. 

It is a great procession which enters the city — the King and Queen in 
their carriage, regiments of soldiers, sixty carts loaded with corn, the mem- 
bers of the A.ssembly on horseback or in carriage-, the rabble of ruffians, 
with guns on their shoulders; a great mob of women brandishing pikes, 
swords, pistols, clubs. The one want, the one word, "bread," had com- 
pelled the King and the National Assembly, in their weakness, to yield to 
the mob. Government had lost its power; the Commune was master. 

The noblemen and their families, knowing that their lives were in 
danger, tied across the Rhine to find safety in Austria and Prussia. The 
kings of those countries saw that Louis had been shorn of his power, and 
began to fear that their own subjects might rise against them. 

Would not all Europe be asking for written constitutions like that 
adopted by the people of the United States? They determined to declare 
war against France, march their armies across the Rhine, and restore the 



1790 ! 



TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 



53 



old order of tilings. The Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, laid a plan 
for the King, herself, and the children to escape from Paris, cross the 
Khine, and remain there till the armies of Prussia and Austria had con- 
quered the French. They fled in a coach ; but the plan failed. They were 
arrested, brought back, and taken to the Tuileries. It was a palace, but 
they were prisoners in its gilded halls. 



h 



i"v v ' :r " "" - - ■ 



•■ 



m l ^ : i- ~~ *>; c. V ".■■; V'- ,J 



a,S 








,-4^-,^-K?: 



^^MS^ 



&$§&>£} 



WOMEN MARCHING TO VERSAILLES. [FROM AN OLD PUINT.J 

One hundred and fifty thousand Anstrians and Prussians, commanded 
by the Duke of Brunswick, crossed the Rhine to invade France. The 
duke issued a proclamation. "I come," he said, "to defend the Church 
and the throne, to restore to the King the liberty and dignity which belong 
to him, and to inflict vengeance on all who have dared to insult him." 
The proclamation, instead of intimidating, set France on fire. 

" Down with the King !" shouted the people. The cry rung through the 
streets of Paris. A great crowd rushed to the Tuileries ; battered down 
its doors; shot the Queen's Guards defending it; seized the King, Queen, 
and their children, and hurried them to prison. The Swiss Guards in the 
Tuileries were shot, and there was a terrible massacre. 



54 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[.Chap. Ill 




ATTACK ON nil TD1LERIES. — [PROM AN OLD PRINT.] 



On came the Austrians to conquer France. England sent no troops; 
but she was lending her influence and money to help crush the people. 
Higher than ever rose the spirit of liberty; soldiers enlisted and hastened 
north to join General Dnmouriez to help drive back the Austrians. 



1790.] 



TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 



...» 




In Strasbourg was a young artillery officer, Rouget de l'lsle. The 
mayor of the city, Dietrich, was his friend. The times were hard ; the 
mayor was poor, but there was al- 
ways a place at his table for the 
young officer. " We are poor — we 
have only brown bread and a bottle 
of wine ; but here's to Liberty," said 
Dietrich one day at dinner. They 
filled their glasses and drank to Lib- 
erty. The young officer went to his 
chamber, sat down to the clavichord, 
and began to play and sing. His soul 
was on fire for liberty for France. 
Words came, and with them a 
strange, wild melody. He did not 
know which came first — the music 
or the words. He sung and played, 
and felt a strange delight. His head 
fell upon his breast : he was asleep. 
The morning sun was shining- in his 
face when he awoke, and the song 
was still stirring his soul. Dietrich 

heard him sing it, and called in his friends to hear it. His daughter sat 
down to the clavichord and played while the officer snug: 

" Ye sons of Freedom, wake to glory. 

Hark ! hark !■ what myriads bid you rise. 
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary, 

Behold their tears and hear their cries. 
Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding, 

Willi hireling host, a ruffian band, 

Affright and desolate the land, 
While Peace and Liberty lie bleeding? 

To arms ! to arms, ye brave ! 
The avenging sword unsheath ! 

March on ! march on ! All hearts resolved 
On victory or death !" 

In a few hours all Strasbourg was singing it. It went from village to 
village, city to city, province to province. 

In June, 1792, fifteen hundred men, wearing red caps and armed with 
muskets and swords, marched from Marseilles to Paris singing Rouget de 
l'Isle's song, which thus came to be known as the " Marseillaise," and 



ROl'GKT BE I, ISLE. 



56 



Bl [LDING THE NATION". 



[Chap. IIL 



which above all other songs ever written has stirred the hearts of men. 
Bntalas! in a few months Dietrich became a victim of the guillotine, 
and Rouget de Tlsle was fleeing for his life. Great events had taken 
place. The Austrian* had been defeated in a great battle at Jemappes; 
the King and Queen had been beheaded ; the Girondists carted off to the 
guillotine ; the Constitution overthrown ; the government seized by blood- 
thirsty villains. More than a million people had perished — by the guillo- 
tine, war, famine, and starvation. 

The nation had waded through a sea of blood. Old things had passed 




FIRST SINGING OP THE " MARSEILLAISE. 



away never to return, it was the United States teaching by example 
which fired the hearts of the French. Why did they not succeed in estab- 
lishing an enduring Republic '. Because all free governments to be endur- 
ing must be founded on intelligence, virtue, morality, and a belief in God 
and immortality. 

The Pilgrims of the Mayflower elected William Bradford Governor, 
and William Brewster to be their minister; they built the school-house 
and meeting -house side by side, to educate themselves for the present 
and the future life. Out of that exercise of natural right in electing 
their ruler.- and educating themselves* came the Republic of the United 
Stat' 



1792.] TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 57 

France had no school-houses. There were plenty of churches; but 
through the corruption and despotism of the Church there had been a 
dying out of virtue, morality, and religion. Men believed in nothing. The 
strongest ruled. An enduring Republic under such conditions was not 
possible. Out of the Revolution came the one man who could restore 
order — Napoleon Bonaparte. 



58 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[ClIAP.IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 

INFLUENCE OF FRANCE UPON THE UNITED STATES. 

WHEN the French Revolution begun ; when the Commons elected by 
the people to meet the Nobles and Clergy in convention asserted 
their rights ; when Lafayette presented the Declaration of Rights, copied 
from the Declaration written by Thomas Jefferson ; when the Constitution 
was adopted by the people of France, everybody in the United States re- 
joiced. France had helped the United States achieve independence, and 
the thought that the French people were overthrowing the despotisms and 
tyrannies of the ages thrilled every American. Washington, Jefferson, 
Adams all rejoiced. Lafayette sent the key of the Bastile to Washing- 
ton, who had it enclosed in a glass case and hung in his home at Mount 
Vernon. The Republicans in France had adopted cockades of red, white, 
and blue as the badge of liberty, and the citizens of the United States 
adorned their hats with the same colors. Ladies 
trimmed their dresses with the colors significant 
of freedom. 

It was not long, however, before Washington, 
John A.dams, and Hamilton saw that things were 
going wrong in France; that true liberty and 
the best welfare of the people could not be 
brought about by a wholesale cutting off of 
heads. The sober-minded and religious people 
of the United States were shocked by the writ- 
ings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Thomas Paine, 
which were republished in the United States. 
Those writers were sincere lovers of liberty. 
They saw that the bishops and priests lived scan- 
dalous lives; that they fleeced the people; that 

they were hypocrites, ami came to the conclusion that all religion was a 
cheat. Voltaire called Jesus ( Ihrist a wretch. The ruffians who seized the 
government abolished the days of the week, months, and the years. No 




THOMAS PAINE. 



1791.] INFLUENCE OF FRANCE UPON THE UNITED STATES. 59 

longer would they write Anno Domini — the year of onr Lord — but would 
have all things new. There was no God, no hereafter. Death was an 
endless sleep. 

"Open the window. I shall die to-day," said Mirabeau, one of the 
great leaders. "Envelop me in perfumes, crown me with flowers, sur- 
round me with music, while I sink to everlasting sleep." 

To the men who had built the meeting and school houses of America 
— descendants of those who had left their homes in Old England to brave 
all the hardships of the wilderness that they might be free to worship God 
— this life and the life to come were tremendous realities; and they stood 
aghast before the loss of faith and hope in God and immortality exhibited 
by the French people. 

On the other hand, Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams, through 
their intense love for liberty and their hatred of kings, thought of the 
French people as struggling only for freedom. When they saw Austria 
and Prussia marching to crush France, and learned that England was 
urging on those nations, supplying them with money, they wanted the 
United States to aid France. They claimed that, as the United States 
had achieved their independence through the aid of France, the people 
of America were in duty bound to take part in the great struggle between 
liberty and despotism. President Washington thought differently. He 
was far-sighted. If the United States were to take part there would be 
no end of trouble. He issued a proclamation, informing the people that 
the United States would take no part in European affairs. The procla- 
mation greatly offended Jefferson and Samuel Adams. There was hot 
and sharp discussion in the newspapers. The people divided into two 
parties — the Federal, who sided with Washington ; the Kepublican, who 
sided with Jefferson and Samuel Adams. The Republicans of Boston, to 
show their sympathy with the French, two days before the execution of 
Louis XVI., had a grand banquet in State Street, where a table, several 
hundred feet in length, was laid. The school-children marched in pro- 
cession. Samuel Adams gave an oration. An ox was roasted, its horns 
decorated with ribbons. Loaves of bread were baked stamped with the 
words " Liberty and Equality." Hogsheads of punch were placed along 
the street. There was eating and drinking, the singing of songs, hur- 
rahs for liberty for France; and as the rum got into their heads the men 
pelted one another with bread, and threw slices of meat at the ladies 
looking down from the windows. The banquet ended in a scene which 
all were ashamed of when they became sober. 

In 1793 Edmond Charles Genet was sent to the United States as rep 



60 



1 .11 1.1)1X0 THE NATION. 



[Chap. [V 




STATE STREET, BOSTON, L801. 

resentative of the French Republic. Jefferson and the Democratic socie- 
ties warmly welcomed him. Genet was not wise or prudent. Before 
presenting his credentials to Washington he purchased two vessels in 
Charleston, S. 0., armed them, and sent them out to capture the ships of 
England. One of them .-ailed up the coast, captured several British ves- 
sel-, entered Delaware Bay, and proceeded to Philadelphia, with the cap 
of liberty on the foretop-mast, the British colors placed upside down, with 
the French flag flying above. Church-hells rung, cannon thundered, and 
all the Democratic citizens of Philadelphia turned out and hastened down 
to the river-side to welcome the vessel. Genet arrived, and sat down to 
a grand banquet, with the Governor <>f the State as one of the guests. 
There was a "tree of liberty" on the table. Genet placed a red cap 
of liberty on his own head, and then on the head of each guest. A 
roasted pig was brought in. with the label, " Louis XVI." "Tyrantl" 
shouted Genet, seizing the carving-knife and cutting off the pig's head. 
The Republicans clapped their hands and shouted " Hurrah!" 

Genet had insulted the United State.-. President Washington was 



1791.] 



INFLUENCE OF FRANCE ON THE UNITED STATES. 



01 




not a man to allow of any insult to law and order. The British ships 
taken by Genet's ship were returned to their owners, and the Chief-justice 
informed all grand-jurors that they were to take notice of all such viola- 
tions of law. Genet had several 
projects. Spain owned Florida. He 
intended to raise an army to invade 
it, and enlisted two thousand men in 
Kentucky. 

" Is the minister of the French 
Republic to be .permitted to set the 
laws at defiance ?" asked President 
Washington. 

"No!" the cabinet replied, and a 
letter was sent to the French Gov- 
' eminent requesting the recall of Ge- 
net. 

The Democratic Republicans were 
very angry with Washington, and ac- 
cused him of wishing to establish a 

GENET. O 

monarchy. They tried to make it 
appear that they were the only true lovers of liberty. There were bitter 
words between the Democrats and the Federalists. Old friends became 
estranged, and would not speak to each other. The ideas which had al- 
ready divided the people into two great parties became more intense. 
The Democrats called those who followed Washington, Monarchists, while 
the Federalists said that the Democrats were Jacobins, Anarchists, Dis- 
unionists. Men lost respect for their fellow*- men, and forgot their old- 
time courtesy. They became rude and disrespectful in social life. A 
rough fellow met a minister one day. 

" How are you, priest ?" he said. 

" How are you, Democrat?" 

" How do you know I am a Democrat ?" 

" How do you know I am a priest ?" 

" By your dress." 

" And I know that you are a Democrat by your address!" 

Though bitter the words, the people did not lose their self-control. 
Gradually they saw that French liberty was very different from American 
liberty. A pamphlet was published in Philadelphia with two pictures 
showing the difference between French and American liberty, which had 
a great effect upon the public. 



62 BUILDING THE NATION. [Cuai-. IV. 

There is no turning back the tide of human affairs. What is once 
done is done for all time. The example of the United States helped on 
the French Revolution, which, in turn, made itself felt by every hearth- 
stone in the United States, for weal or woe, through all coming time. 
How it affected the government will be seen in subsequent chapters. 




THE CONTRAST. 



1794.1 FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 63 



CHAPTER V. 

FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 

WHAT the future of the new nation ? What forces will mould and 
fashion it ? What the character of the people % What will they 
do for themselves and for the world? 

John Endicott, John Winthrop, and the men who came with them to 
Massachusetts knew that ignorance is weakness, and knowledge power; 
that to o-et the most out of life men must have knowledge ; that men who 
are ignorant will make mistakes, blunders, and failures. That their chil- 
dren might not be ignorant, they established common schools. In the 
common school all were on a level ; the poor boy had just as good a 
chance for obtaining an education as the son of the rich man. The Pil- 
grims and Puritans had common schools very soon after they came to this 
country. The Provincial Legislature of New Hampshire in 16-12 ordered 
the select-men of every town to ''suffer no such barbarism in any of their 
families as not to endeavor to teach their children to read ;" and in 1647 
they passed a law that every town containing one hundred families should 
establish a grammar-school. 

In every township a large tract of land was reserved for the benefit 
of the schools. A law was passed in Massachusetts in 1619 requiring 
every town to have a school for reading and writing, and even town con- 
tainino; one hundred inhabitants must maintain a grammar-school. All 
must learn to read, and this was the reason : " It is the chief project 
of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from a knowledge of the 
Scriptures." 

Connecticut, in 1650, passed a law requiring every town containing 
fifty families to support a grammar-school. 

None of the other Colonies had common schools. Governor Berkeley, 
of Virginia, hated them. This was what he wrote in 1665 : " I thank God 
there are no free schools nor printing in Virginia, and I hope we shall not 
have them these hundred years ; for learning has brought heresy and dis- 



64 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[CllAP. V. 







33 

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Tliy lif 
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= — I 

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obedience and sects 
into the world, and 
printing hath di- 
vulged them, and li- 
bels against the best 
government. God 
keep us from both 1" 
Every town in 
New England was di- 
vided into school dis- 
tricts. The people 
elected a committee 
to employ a teacher. 
The select -men ap- 
portioned the taxes. 
Education protected 
property, and prop- 
erty must support ed- 
ucation. Knowledge 
was power. It would 
enable the 
make then 
the world, 
make men 
Every district had its 
school - house. The 
benches and desks 
were of pine. There 
was a great fireplace 
heaped with blazing 
logs in winter, which 
gave place to a stove 
when stoves came 
into use. On one side 
was the master's desk, 
upon a raised plat- 
form, where he stood, 
ferule in hand, mon- 
arch and despot as 
well as instructor. If 



poor to 
way in 

It would 
virtuous. 



1794] 



FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 



67 



a boy was remiss in his lessons or disobeyed orders, he was pretty sure 
to smart for it ; and if he received a whipping at school, he expected an- 
other when he reached home. It was the New England idea of obedience 
to law and order. Children just learning their letters, roistering boys, 
stalwart young men, girls in aprons, fair maidens verging toward woman- 
hood, all attended school, for it was a disgrace not to be able to read or 
write. The classes took their places on the floor when reading and spell- 
ing. Great and small stood with their toes to a crack in the floor — the 
boys bowing, the girls courtesying, when the master said " Attention !" 

A boy with a patch on each knee, his jacket in rags, who lived in a 
cabin, whose breakfast was potato and salt, and whose supper was pump- 
kin and milk, quite likely stood at the head of the class; while the boy 
who wore good clothes, without patch, or darn, whose father had great 
barns, cattle, and sheep, who was esquire, colonel, representative — the boy 
who had everything that money could buy — possibly found himself at the 
foot of the long line of spellers. All were on a level. Money, position in 
society, counted nothing ; merit won. The little children begun with the 
primer; then came the spelling-book, reading, writing, arithmetic. The 
committee and parents visited the schools at their close, to see how the 
boys and girls were getting on. Scholars too poor to purchase paper 
used birch-bark in learning to write. In the long winter evenings they 
sat by the wide-mouthed chimneys and worked out problems in arithme- 
tic by the light of blazing pitch-knots, using charred sticks for want of 
pencils. 

The common school was a mighty force in 
the new civilization. Many of the boys in 
rags made their way through college, became 
teachers, ministers, lawyers, legislators, and 
governors; it fltted all to become citizens, 
under a free government based on intelli- 
gence and equal rights. 

A Connecticut boy, Noah Webster, when 
he had mastered arithmetic, grammar, and 
Dilworth's spelling-book, in the common 
school, studied Latin, and recited his le.-smis 
to a young minister, Nathan Perkins. lie 
made such rapid progress that when he was 
seventeen years old, in 1775, he entered Yale College. News came of 
what was going on at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, and the ''al- 
lege boys, with their souls on fire for freedom, formed a company and 




NOAH N l BST! R 



68 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. V. 



chose Noah Webster captain. When General Washington arrived at New 
Haven, on his way to Cambridge to hike command of the army, the boys 
escorted him quite a distance; so Noah became one of the " Boys of '76 ;" 
but when off duty, in camp, kept on with his studies. 

When the war was over he studied law with his classmate, Oliver Ells- 
worth, whom President Washington appointed Chief-justice of the United 
States. But instead of practising law Webster taught school. He did not 
like Joseph Dilworth's spelling-book, which was an English hook; he want- 
ed an American book. He thought that the American people should 
make their own school-books, aud believed the time would come when the 
United States would have a literature of its own. 

The spelling-book which he made pleased him so well that he had it 
printed. It begun with words of one syllable. Its reading lessons were 
easy. They were about the great moral truths which are the founda- 
tion of character, inculcating thrift, industry, morality, virtue, and liappi- 
It contained fables of his own making — delightful reading, illus- 
trated with pictures. The first 
fable was about a boy who 
stole apples : 

" An old man found a rude 
boy upon one of his trees steal- 
ing apples, and desired him to 
c-dine down; but the young 
saucebox told him plainly he 
would not. ' Won't you?' said 
the old man ; ' then I will fetch 
you down ;' so he pulled up 
some tufts of grass and threw 
at him ; but this only made the 
youngster laugh,'to think the old man should pretend to beat him down 
from the tree with grass only. ' Well, well,' said the old man. 'if neither 
words nor grass will do, 1 must try what virtue there is in stones.' So the 
old man pelted him heartily with stones, which soon made the young chap 
n down from the tree, and beg the old man's pardon. 
"Moral. -If good words and gentle means will not reclaim the 
wicked, they must be dealt with in a mon severe manner? 

in a short time it was the only spelling-book in use. Millions of them 
were sold. The historian who would write a true history of the United 
States must not leave out Noah Webster's spelling-book. It has been a 
great uplifting force. Many of the hoys and girls, fourscore years ago, 




Tin: BOY WlH) STOLE \r 



1794.] 



FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 



69 



had time to master little more than the fables and the reading lessons of 
that book, but they never forgot the stories of the boy who stole apples, of 
the milkmaid who counted her chickens before they were hatched, and of 
the cat in the meal. The moral lessons which they learned laid the foun- 
dation of character — made them noble men and women, pioneers of a new 
civilization, and founders of States. 

From the creation of the world down to the close of the last century 
nearly all the work of the world had been accomplished by muscular labor 
of men or animals ; but in England and in the United States men were 
discovering that machinery might be made to do the work of human 
hands, and the energy of nature — the winds, water-falls, and coal — to take 
the place of the energy of men. 




SPINNING : LARGE WHEEL. 



All through the centuries down to the year 1530 all spinning was done 
by the distaff and spindle, but in that year a man in Germany invented the 
spinning-wheel. When the Protestants were driven out of Germany be- 
cause they would not attend mass, some of them fled to England, carrying 
their spinning-wheels. Queen Elizabeth heard about their wheels, and 
invited eight young girls to spin before her. She was much pleased and 
made them presents, and directed that laws should be passed to encourage 
manufacturing. 



7(» 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap.V. 



In 17<!7. while Jenny Hargreaves, of England, was spinning- one day, 
a thought came to her husband, James. Why not have several spindles 
moved by one wheel? He (tarried out the idea — put a large number of 




SPINNING : SMALL WIIKKL. 



spindle.- in a frame, and had them all turned by one wheel. II*' named 
the new invention the spinning- jenny. Did his fellow- spinners thank 
liim '. On tlic contrary, a mob smashed them to pieces, saying that lie 
would take the bread out of their mouths. 

At Glasgow, in Scotland, dames Watl was thinking about steam-en- 
gines, lie had seen the rude machines invented by Newcomen that were 
in use for pumping water from mines. They were great, clumsy, expen- 
sive, and accomplished very little. In Newcomen's engine the steam 
lifted the piston, which fell of it> own weight. On a Sunday afternoon 
James Watl was walking in the green fields just out of Glasgow, and a 
great thought came to him. When the piston was up and the cylinder 
full of steam, why not have a valve open and let a little cold water into the 



1794.] 



FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 



71 




HARGREAVES S SPINNING-JENNY. 



cylinder, which would instantly condense the steam ? And why not at the 
same time have a valve open to let steam in on the other side of the piston 
to force it back again, and so keep it going ? 




ARKWI'.IGMT S SPINNING-FRAME 



On Monday morning he was hard at work upon the new idea, and a 
few days later (in 1781) his first little engine was in motion. 

There was a man in the United States who was also thinking about the 



72 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.V 

use of steam — John Fitch. He was born in Windsor, Connecticut, and 
was so bright that, before he was ten years old, lie could do all the prob- 
lems in Hodder*s arithmetic. Be was so eager for knowledge that he 
planted patch of potatoes and stayed at home on training-days to hoe them, 
that he might earn money to buy a geography. His father's nearest neigh- 
bor was Oliver Wolcott, Governor of Connecticut, who employed John to 
help him survey several lots of land, and who was much astonished to rind 
that the boy ten years old knew quite as much about arithmetic as he 
did. The Governor did not treat him very handsomely, however, giving 
him nothing for several days' work. John's father apprenticed him to 
Benjamin Cheany to learn the clock-maker's trade, where he had poor 
fare — mutton-broth, with beans in it, three times a day for several weeks, 
till the sight of it sickened him. lie had a great many ups and downs in 
life, travelling through the country cleaning clocks, buying old brass ket- 
tles, making brass buttons and selling them. During the Revolution he 
worked for the State of New Jersey, fixing guns for the soldiers at Tren- 
ton. He went to Kentucky, was taken prisoner by the Indians, and carried 
to Canada. When the war was over he went to Pennsylvania. 

On a Sunday in April, 1785, Mr. Fitch was limping to meeting to hear 
the Rev. Mr. Irwin preach — his bones aching with rheumatism. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sinton dashed past him in a two-wheeled chaise. The thought came, 
why not get up a machine that would go without a horse to draw it? lie 
never had heard of a steam-engine; had no knowledge that Newcomen 
had used steam for pumping water from mines, nor that a man in England 
had conceived the idea of propelling a boat by steam. 

Fitch knew that steam had a great deal of expansive force, and in- 
vented a steam-wagon for common roads, and made a plan which he 
showed to the Rev. Mr. Irwin, who informed him that Newcomen had had 
steam-engines at work for several years in England. 

John Fitch saw that the roads were so bad that it would be difficult to 
use a steam-wagon, but set himself to build a boat. After many trials and 
disappointments he succeeded. 

On August •_'". 17^7, in Philadelphia, the members of the Convention, 
who were just ready to send out the first written Constitution the world 
had ever seen, stood on the bank of the Delaware and beheld John Fitch 
gliding up-stream in the first practical steamboat ever constructed. 

In July, 1788, the boat made its first trip from Philadelphia up the 
river to Burlington — the people along the river cheering, women waving 
their handkerchiefs, and cannon thundering a salute. Two years later, in 
1790, John Fitch's steamboat all through the summer made regular trips 



17D4."] 



FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 



73 




fitch's steamboat. 



between Philadelphia and Trenton, and sometimes to Wilmington, at the 
rate of three miles an hour, sailing in all more than 2500 miles. He went 
to England and tried to introduce his steamboat into that country, but 
without success. 

Genius is far-sight- 
ed and prophetic. It 
sees what is to be. 
The world was not 
ready for the steam- 
boat ; but John Fitch, 
looking into the fut- 
ure, saw that the time 
would come when 
steamships would trav- 
erse the ocean, and 
glide to and fro upon 
the great rivers of the 
West. 

'"The time will come," he said, "when some more powerful man will 
get favor and riches by my invention, but no one now will believe that 
poor John Fiteh can do anything." 

He went to Ohio to spend his last days, and when the shadow of death 
was upon him made this request: " Bury me on the banks of the Ohio, 
that I may lie where the song of the boatmen will enliven the stillness of 
my resting-place, and the music of the engines soothe my spirit." 

He had invented a new method of locomotion ; but twenty years were 
to pass before it would come into use. 

On that 19th of April, 1775, when the British troops marched from 
Boston to Concord, and began the Revolutionary War, there was a boy 
in Westborough, Mass., ten years old — Eli Whitney, who was spending all 
his spare time in his father's shop. His father had a turning-lathe, and 
turned table-legs, bedsteads, and the rounds of chairs. Just -at that time 
Eli was making a violin. 

"I am afraid Eli will never be good for anything except to make 
fiddles," said his father. 

Eli was very much taken i.p with machinery. His father bought a 
watch. On a Sunday, when all the rest of the family were at meeting. Eli 
took it apart and put it together again, the watch ticking as well as ever. 

He paid his way through Yale College by making violins and walking- 
canes, and by teaching school. 
3* 



u 



lillLDlMi THE NATION. 



[Chap. V. 



The college philosophical apparatus was broken, and the professor 
thought that it must be sent to Europe to be repaired. 
" I think I can repair it," said Eli. 

The professor gazed at him in amazement, and doubted his ability. 
"If you are willing, 1 should like to try it." 
It was given into his hands, and he made it as good as new. 
When. he had finished at Yale lie went to Georgia, expecting to teach 
school, travelling with Mrs. Greene, widow of the brave general who led 
General Cornwallis and the British such a dance through Carolina during 
the Revolution. Mrs. Greene lived a short distance out from Savannah, 

al Mulberry Grove, and invited Eli 
to her house. She was making tam- 
bour embroidery, which required a 
needle of peculiar shape. 

" I wish I had a better needle," 
said Mrs. Greene. 

"A better needle! Let me see 
it, please." He looked at it, and 
in a short time made her a present 
of one of a new pattern which was 
far better. 

A party of planters dined with 
Mrs. Greene. Their talk was about 
cotton. Manufacture of cotton had 
begun in England; the people were 
using Ilargreaves's machines. Rich- 
ard A-rkwright had also made a spinning-machine, and there was a great 
demand for cotton. The planters sent eight bagfuls from Savannah in 17S4, 
and in 1788 two hundred and eighty-two bags, and more was called for. 

"If we could only separate the seed from the cotton we could make 
our fortunes, but it takes a negro a day to clean a pound," said one of 
the planters. 

The negro slaves were having a hard time — obliged to work in the 
fields all dav. digging with a heavy hoe; and at night the overseer, whip 
in hand, compelled them to pick the seed- from the cotton. 

"I have a young friend here who can make you a machine that will 
do it. lie can do anything " said Mrs. Greene, and introduced Mr. Whit- 
ney, lie listened \<< what the planters had to say, shut himself up in his 
room, and in a short time had a machine which wouid do the work of 
forty negroes. 




ELI WHITNEY. 



1794.] 



FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 



*&, 




:i W^:^ 






«v\ 



THE SKA ISLANDS. 



The planters were 
delighted. He patent- 
ed his invention, but the planters 
made machines of their own, cheat- 
ing him out of his jnst dues. They 
were rich, and he poor ; and they 
cared very little for the suits which 
he brought against them. 

More cotton was wanted in Eng- 
land. To raise it the planters must have more slaves ; and the slave-trade 
— which everybody expected, when the Constitution was adopted, would 
soon die out — became brisker than ever, furnishing employment for the 
ships owned by the merchants of Boston, Newport, and New York, bring- 
ing slaves from Africa and carrying cotton to England. Nowhere. else in 
the world could such cotton be raised as grew on the islands along the 
coast of South Carolina. The fibre was long, and as soft as silk. The 
lands which had been regarded as almost worthless became very valuable. 
The planters cleared away the great wide-spreading trees, with the long 
trails of moss hanging from the branches; and the slaves soon trans- 



76 



I : l 1 1 . 1 > I N < ; THE NATION. 



[Chap.V 




COTTON GIN. 



formed the forest into a landscape of far-reaching fields, snow-white in 
the time of the cotton harvest. 

It was fonnd that rice would grow upon the lowlands along the coast, 
and more negroes were needed to transform the marshes into rice-fields. 




llnl.lM, l;h K 



1794.] FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. 77 

So it came about that, through the invention of the boy who worked 
his way through college by making violins — Eli Whitney — through the 
invention of James Ilargreaves in England, in making a spinning-jenny, 
that thousands of negroes were being brought from Africa, Virginia was 
raising negroes for sale, the Southern States were becoming agricultural, 
the Northern commercial and industrial, and forces unknown before were 
springing up to become mighty agencies in the future of the nation. 



78 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. VI. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 

OLD things were passing away. Manners and customs were changing. 
Three-cornered cocked-hats, plum-colored, crimson, green, and purple 
velvet, coats, slashed with silver and gold ; embroidered waist-coats, buff 
breeches, long stockings, knee -buckles, powdered wigs and pigtails — all 
were going. Forces, silent, unseen, far-reaching, resistless, were at work- 
moulding and fashioning social life in the young Republic. Old forms 
of government had passed away. The written Constitution — the rights 
of the people expressed upon the printed page, which all could read and 
comprehend; the sense of freedom, and also the sense of self-imposed re- 
straint, accountability to themselves, the thinking-out of a government 
of the people, the quickening of the intellect — brought about a trans- 
formation of the social life of the people. 

Then- were five distinct zones of social life — the Yankee, Dutch, 
Quaker, Cavalier, and Pioneer. 

The Yankees lived in New England. They were descendants of the 
Pilgrims and Puritans. Many of the Puritans and many of their chil- 
dren Imuc the name of John. It is a New Testament name, and has 
been a great name in history. There were so many Johns in New Eng- 
land that their Dutch neighbors in New York called them a nation of 
Johns, or Jankins, which in time changed to Yankee. The Dutch did 
nol like the people of .New England, and there was a sneer in the word; 
the New England people, to show how little they cared for it, said it was 
a good word, thai it meant good, and they adopted it. If a man had 
a good horse, lie said it was a Yankee horse. 

The men who left home, friends, eoinl'ort ; who tort' all dear old things 
up by the roots rather than submil to the tyranny of bishops and the King, 
or yield their idea of right, were men of intense convictions. Life was 
real: it meanl a greal deal. Work was a duty. Life was such a tremen- 
dous reality thai there was no time for play. It meant so much that 
every power which men possess musl be trained to honor and glorify 
God. Everybody musl go to meeting on Sunday. Everybody must be 



1790-1800.1 



SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



79 



educated. So the meeting-house and school -house rose side by side all 
over New England. 

In England, in the time of James, a law had been passed compelling 
eveiwbody to attend church, or pay a fine. 

The settlers of Massachusetts and Virginia also passed laws compelling 
people to attend church. The New England people called it attending 
meeting ; the place where they met was a " meeting-house " and not a 
church. The church was not the house, but a body of believers. 




WIDE-AWAKE DEACON. 



On Sunday people put on their best clothes. Those who owned horses 
rode on horseback — the wife on a pillion behind her husband, carrying a 
baby in her arms, with a small boy on the rump of the horse, holding on 
by the crupper. They dismounted at the horse-block in front of the meet- 
ing-house. Those who walked went barefoot in summer, and carried 
their stockings and shoes, putting them on before reaching the meet- 
ing-house. They sat in high -backed pews. When the minister entered 
the congregation stood while ho went up the stairs to the pulpit. The 
prayers were lung and the sermons still longer. The deacons sat in the 



80 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. VI 



most honorable Beats. They were good men. It was their duty to keep 
awake, and they looked hard at anybody who dropped off to sleep during 
the sermon. 

Those of the congregation who could sing sat in the singers' seats. 
The leader gave out the time and the pitch, the singers sounded their 
parts — bass, tenor, alto, and treble fa-la-sol-fa — singing a fuguing tune, 
one part following auother, till all seemed to he lost in the labyrinth of 
melody, but coming out right at last. 

rHfei till , 




^Jf«ti||; ^ 



n H m\i. i in: mm 



During the nooning in summer the people ate their luncheon of dough- 
nut-, cheese, cucumbers, and gingerbread, standing around the door or sit- 
ting beneath the trees in front of the meeting-house. The boys hunted 
birds'-nests or made a foray into the orchards after apples. In winter 
they went into the neighbors' houses and warmed themselves, for there 
no stoves in the meeting-houses. The women carried tin foot-stoves, 
which they tilled with coals at the neighboring fires. The men and boys 




THE LONG SERMON, 



1790-1800.] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



83 



tli nmped their feet to keep them from freezing, and everybody was glad 
when the minister pronounced the benediction. Those who lived far from 
meeting were obliged to start early in the morning, and during the short 
days of winter the sun would be sinking below the western hills when 
they reached home. 

If the tire had gone out on the hearth they rekindled it with a flint, 
steel, and tinder, or by flashing powder in the old gun which had done 
service at Bunker Hill or Saratoga. 

On Sunday evening the family sat around the fire and recited the 
catechism and the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. The small children re- 
peated Dr. Watts's hymn against idleness and mischief: 

" How doth the little busy bee 

Improve each shining hour, 
And gather honey all tlie day 

From every opening flower ! 

* * * * 

In works of labor or of skill, 

I would be busy too ; 
For Satan finds some mischief still 

For idle hands to do." 




" i'i.i. GIVE IT to voi" !" 



84 



i;i [LDING THE NATION. 



[Chat. VI. 



Life was such a tremendous reality there was no time for play — no 
card-playing or games, tf the boys stole away into the barn to play when 
they ought to be at work, they were pretty sure of getting ;i whack from a 
switch when they least expected it. In winter, when there was little work 
to be done, they could coast upon the hill-sides, or glide over the ice upon 
the frozen ponds, having such enjoyment as the boys of the more southern 
Si ales never dreamed of. In the long winter evenings they studied their 
arithmetic and grammar by the light of the pitch-knot blazing on the 

hearth. 

" And for the winter fireside meet, 
Between the andirons straddling feet, 
The mug of cider simmered slow, 
The apples sputtered in a row. 
And close at hand the basket stood, 
With nuts from brown October's wood." 




A M \\ ENGLAND KITCHEN. 



They played "Blind-man's-buff" and " Come, Philander, let us be 
a-marching," and "Roast beef behind your back;" but there must be no 
dancing — that was an invention of the devil. When oyster-suppers came 
into fashion the old folks opposed them. One woman said oysters would 
lead to dancing. 



1790-1800.] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



85 



3 J(fc^\W ibr^ ' =-^ 




**■* 




*S 



tet. 



£ 




In March, when the son 
was swelling the buds of the 
jj maples, came the time for 
j§§ making sugar. The farmers 
bored holes in the trees, in- 
jK sertecl spouts, "caught the sap 
U in buckets and troughs; hung 
their great kettles upon a pole, 
kindled tires,. boiling the sap 
until it became thick, thus ob- 
taining their molasses and 
sugar. Friends and neighbors 
were invited to a "sugaring 
off." Then the woods rung 
with merry laughter. 

When spring came — when 
the farmer could drive his 
team afield — there was no 
time for play. There was the 
ploughing, sowing, planting, 
hoeing of corn and potatoes, 
washing and shearing of 
sheep. In June the wood- 
man s axe was ringing, felling the forest-trees, that they might dry during 
the hot summer days, and be ready for burning in August. In July came 
the haying season. In August was the wheat harvest, cutting the ripened 
grain with the sickle, binding it into sheaves to be threshed in winter. 
Then came the season for burning the trees felled in June. Tall columns 
of smoke rose heavenward, flames illumined the midnight sky; the sun 





SUGAR-TKKKS. 



86 



buildim; the nation. 



[Chap. VI 



was obscured. There was a fragrance of burning timber in the air. In 
October was the gathering of apples — the making of cider; the corn har- 
vest, with husking-parties — young men and maidens gathering in the burns, 
seated on milking-stools or chairs, stripping the husks from the golden 




noil. im; SAP. 



ears, the finding of a red ear entitling the finder to the privilege of kissing' 
the prettiest girl in the company. When the husking was over the com- 
pany sat down to a supper of baked beans, [ndian-pudding, dough-nuts, 
apple and pumpkin pie, gingerbread and cakes, with tea, coffee, and cider. 
On the Fourth of July there was the tiring of guns, ringing of bells, din- 
ners and speeches; glowing accounts of what Washington, Adams, Jeffer- 
son, and the soldiers of the Revolution had accomplished; the drinking of 
punch, eggnog, and rum. 

Muster came in September — the mustering of all the companies of 
soldiers in a regiment or brigade, for a general training. At sunrise the 
drum- were beating. Each company strove to be first <>n parade -to go 
through its manoeuvres in presence of an admiring crowd of spectators — 
the fifes playing "Yankee Doodle" and "On the Read to Boston" — 
tunes which had stirred the hearts of the soldiers during the Revolution. 



1790-1800.] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



87 



All men between the ages 
of eighteen and forty-five 
were soldiers. The light 
infantry, artillery, and ri- 
flemen wore uniforms — 
white pantaloons, blue 
coats, with red facings and 
bright buttons ; caps like a 
half -moon in shape, with 
tall white plumes tipped 
with red. The infantry had 
no uniforms. Lean and 
fat men alike stood in the 
ranks. The general re- 
viewed them. In the af- 
ternoon there was a sham 
fight — muskets rattling and 
cannon thundering — men, 
women, and children from 
all the country round look- 
ing on, feasting; themselves 
with gingerbread, and drink- 
ing rum-punch. 

Thanksgiving — on a 
Thursday in November — 
was the great day of the 
year appointed by the Gov- 
ernor. The harvest was 
secured, corn-husking over, 
the potatoes were in the 
cellar, the apples gathered, 
and the cider made. The 
wheat was on a scaffold in 
the barn waiting the pound- 
ing of the flail ; the flax had 
been spread upon the green- 
sward to rot during the rains 
of autumn ; it had been 
bound in bundles ready for 
the breaking during the 




88 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



LChap, VI 



winter days. The sheep and cattle were home from the pastures. Tur- 
keys and chickens had been fattening through the fall. Such abundance 
called for gladness of heart and thanksgiving to God. 




BUYING 11 l:Kl VS. 



The preceding days were days of preparation. Turkeys and chickens 
were killed and sent to market. There was the chopping of meat and 
apples for mince- pies, and making of plum -pudding, cakes, tarts, and 
sauces. On Thanksgiving morning the minister preached a sermon, and 
the singers sung a joyful anthem. Children and grandchildren came to 
•Id home to eat dinner with grandfather and grandmother. Fires 
were kindled in the parlor, the shutters of the windows which had been 
closed during the year were thrown hack to lei the Bunlight in upon the 
high-backed chairs, the home-spun carpet, the decanters of cut glass on the 
sideboard, Tilled with Port and Madeira wine, Jamaica and New England 
rum. When the meeting was over the people went to their dinner, every- 
body eating and drinking all they could; and when the dinner was over 
the old folks talked of what was going on in the great world, while the 
young folks romped in the kitchen, playing all the games they could think 
of, eating pop-corn and apples, and drinking their fill of cider — getting 



1790-1800. J 



SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



Sfl 



the most they could oat of Thanksgiving, knowing that the winter school 
would begin on the following Monday, when they must take up their 
studies, and that there would be no more holidays till the Fourth of July. 
Everybody wore home-spun clothing. The girls, like the boys, had no 
idle hours, for there was flax to comb and spin, to be woven into sheets, 
pillow-cases, and table-cloths. No girl could think of getting married 
till she had all these for house-keeping. There was the carding of wool 
by hand into rolls, spinning them on a large wheel, walking to and fro 
through the long and weary days, turning the wheel with one hand and 
holding the thread with the other ; then the yarn was reeled into skeins, 
dyed and washed, and put upon the warping-bars and into the loom ; then 
each thread of the warp must be drawn through the "harness" and 




through the "reed;" then the shuttle was thrown backward and forward^ 
and the thread beaten in by the "lathe." There was the weaving of 
linen for sheets, pillow-cases, towels, table-cloths, and under-clothing, of 
tow and wool; the making of "linsey-woolsey" for gowns, or of all-wool 



90 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. \ I. 



cloth for moil's garments. From early morning till the tire burnt low 
on the hearth mother and daughter were at work wielding the hand- 
cards, throwing the shuttle, or whirling the wheel. When the carding, 
spinning, dyeing, and weaving were done there was still more to do — the 
making of quilts, coverlets, and sheets; for no girl could think of being 
married till she had a bountiful supply. 




SPEAKING IN TOWM-MEE1 IN'.. 



The people of New England governed themselves more directly than 
the people of the othei States— holding town-meetings, electing a mod- 
erator to preside, a clerk to keep the town records, and three select-men, 
who assessed taxes, cared for the \ r, and kept roads and bridges in or- 
der. In town-meeting every man could speak and vote. It was a parlia- 
ment, a congress when- all the affairs of the town were discussed and set- 



1790-1800.] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



91 



tied. The majority ruled. It was the people ruling themselves — the 
simplest and best government ever attained by the human race. 

In the New England States the Fourth of July was celebrated as in 
no other section of the country. At sunrise there was tiring of cannon 
and ringing of bells. Later in the day there was mustering of soldiers, 
picnics, orations, rehearsing the patriotism and heroism of the men who 
achieved the independence of the nation, drinking of beer, lemonade, and 
rum-punch. It was the nation's birthday, and the beginning of a new 
order of things in human government. It was felt that such a day ought 
to be forever kept in remembrance. President John Adams said that it 
ought ever to be celebrated, and the people agreed with him. Old and 
young — men, women, and children — all participating in the enjoyments, 
to keep alive their love of country. 

The Yankees were restless. Their beliefs, their sense of obligation, 




THE FOURTH Of JULY. 



made them so. To accomplish the great end of life — to make money, to 
settle new lands, build school and meeting houses, and convert the world 
to their ideas of liberty, government, and religion — made them the most 
restless people in the world. The soil was hard and stony. The ocean 
•off Newfoundland and Labrador swarmed with fish, and fleets of small 
vessels sailed from Cape Ann and Cape Cod for the Northern seas. Great 



92 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. VL 

ships sailed far away to the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean, or south ward 
round Cape Horn and out upon the Pacific, manned by the huntsmen of 
the sea, to capture the monsters of the deep. Long voyages they were. 
When the crews bade their friends farewell they knew that it would be 
three years before they would drop anchor again in the home port. Oft 
the shores of Greenland, or beyond Behring Strait, or southward beneath 
the Southern Cross of the midnight skies, the sturdy whaleman of Nan- 
tucket and New Bedford, keeping keenest watch from the swaying top- 
mast, shouted to his comrades upon the deck, "There she blows!" Then 
came the lowering of the boats, the chase, the throwing of lance and 
harpoon, the death-struggle of the monster, or the crushing of the boats 
between its jaws, or by a stroke of its tail. 

To India, to China, to every port on the globe, sailed the ships of the 
merchants, manned by the hardy sailors. 

The Yankees made clocks, tin pans, wash-boards, pails, and brooms, 
which they peddled through the country, gathering up rags, hogs' bris- 
tles, old pewter, and making money out of the odds and ends of things. 
They crossed the Hudson and made the Knickerbockers of Albany and 
Schenectady uncomfortable with their ideas and notions. They swarmed 
into Vermont in such numbers that, in 1791, it became a State. They 
crossed the Alleghanies and took possession of Ohio, building school- 
houses and churches, making their power and influence felt from the At- 
lantic to the Mississippi ; while on the sea they were carrying the stsra 
and stripes to every quarter of the globe. 



1790-1800.1 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 



93 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 

THE Knickerbockers lived in New York. In Holland a " knickcr " is 
a small clay ball, baked and oiled, which the boys use instead of mar- 
bles, for Holland has no marble -quarries. The people who make and 
bake the balls are called knicJcerbacken. The Knickerbockers of New 




ROOM IN A NEW YORK HUTCH HOME. 



Fork lived in steep-roofed houses, with porches by the doors, where the 
burghers sat and smoked their pipes. Upon the doors were great brass 
knockers, ornamented with griffins' heads. The brick walls were thick 
and strong, the kitchens large, with wide-mouthed fireplaces. 



94 BUILDING THE nation. [Chap. VII 

The Dutch were patient, slow.-going, honest, industrious, and thrifty. 
They came from a race that had built great dykes out into the ocean in 
Holland, enclosing a portion of the sea, erected wind-mills, pumped out 
the water, transforming the sea into a garden. They were the men who, 
t<> get rid of the Spaniards, let the sea in upon the land. [See "Story 
of Liberty."] 

The houses of the Dutch farmers along the Hudson and up the Mo- 
hawk were usually of one story, with low roof and great chimneys. 
Upon every ridge-pole was a weather-cock. The water-spouts projected 
far beyond the stoop. The houses of their ancestors in Holland were 
built with such spouts to carry the rain into the canals, and the settlers 
constructed theirs after the same pattern, although there wore no canals 
to receive the water. 

The housewives kept the kitchen neat and tidy, scrubbing the floors,. 
sprinkling them with white sand, and in summer filling the great fireplaces 
with pine boughs. In the cellar were barrels of salted beef and pork, 
bins of potatoes, beets, parsnips, and carrots. Every farmer had a smoke- 
house, where he smoked his bacon; a cabbage garden, and tobacco-patch, 
raising his own tobacco. With plenty to eat and drink, the farmer lived 
peacefully and happily, knowing little and caring less for what was go- 
ing on in the world. The Yankees might be ever on the move, but he 
would stay at home, eat at his own table, sleep in his own bed, toss his 
baby on his knees, singing the song sung to his fathers in their child- 
hood, to him when he was a baby : 

"Trip a troup a tronjes, 
It'- rarkens in de boonjes, 
Do krojes in de klaver, 
De poorden in de haver, 
Do kalf ea in de long gi 
l><- renjes in <lr water plass ; 
grool inyn klein poppetje vas." 

That is, the little baby on his knees was a-^ happy as a little pig among 
the beans, as the cows up to their eyes in clover, the horses eating oats, 
the calves in the long grass, as the ducks swimming in the water. 

In the farm-house the family sat down to dinner around a solid oak 
tabic, and ate from wooden plates, with strings of dried apples, 'pumpkins, 
onions, and squashes hanging from the beams above them. The rich 
merchants in Albany and New York sat down at mahogany tables. They 
had platters of .-"lid silver, and poured their liquors from clear cut-glass 
decanters. They had hogsheads id' good old wine in their cellars, and 



1790-iyOU.J 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 



95 



entertained their friends with princely hospitality. They wore cherry or 
plum colored velvet coats, with wide skirts and cuffs, trimmed with gold 
and silver lace. They wore their hair in queues. After dinner they 
smoked their long-stemmed pipes, and talked of their ventures in trade. 
Their wives wore rich silk and velvet gowns, and costlj' lace, woven by 
the lace-workers of Antwerp. 

The Knickerbockers had five holidays — Christmas, New-year, Pinkster. 
Whitsuntide, and St. Nicholas. On New-year morning the men and boys 
fired guns, and spent the day in calling upon their friends, drinking punch, 
and eating pretzels and cakes — drinking so often that before night nearly 
everybody had a top-heavy head, confused ideas, and was weak in the legs. 

February 14 was " Vroumen-dagh," or St. Valentine's-day, when the 
girls went through the streets with knotted whips, giving the young men 
and boys a whack. In June was " Pinkster," when the young people went 
into the woods and fields and held a picnic — gathering flowers, dancing 
beneath the trees, eating dough-nuts and cheese, and drinking home-made 




AFTER LiINNKi 



beer. The Dutch women worked hard from morning till night, rubbing 
and scrubbing, spinning and weaving, baking and brewing. The Knick- 
erbockers slept with a feather-bed above them as well as one beneath 
them. No Dutch maiden thought of marriage till she hud two beds and 
a pile of linen sheets and pillow-cases. 



96 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. VII. 




On Sunday evenings lovers called upon their sweethearts. When the 
maidens had their outfit complete their lovers obtained from the Gover- 
nor a license to be married. The dominie came and married them. The 
day after the wedding everybody came to shake hands with the bride and 
bridegroom, and to eat pies, cakes, dough-nuts, and cheese, and drink rum, 
brandy-schnapps, port, punch, and Madeira. 

At funerals there was much eating and drinking. Scarfs and gloves 

O O c5 

were given to all the deceased's friends, and it was astonishing the num- 
ber of friends some had ! They sat around the coffin, and smoked their 
pipes and drank wine. The minister drank a glass, offered prayer, then 
drank another glass. Everybody joined in the procession to the grave, 
marching with slow steps, and came back to the house to eat and drink. 
What eating, and drinking, and carousing when Lucas Wyngaard, of Al- 
bany, died, in 1756! After the burial the mourners went back to the 
house, sat up all night smoking, eating, and drinking a whole pipe of wine, 
besides rum, brandy, gin, and cider, breaking all the glasses and decanters, 
smashing chairs and tables, making a bonfire of their scarfs, dancing and 
singing songs, and most of them rolling dead-drunk upon the floor! 



1790-1800.] SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 97 

The Dutch farmers of New York were slow about their work. They 
were not, like the people of New England, always in a hurry. They rose 
early in the morning. The women and girls milked the cows, churned 
butter, and made cheese, and when breakfast was over set the spinning- 
wheel to humming, or helped the men hoe the cabbages or swing the 
scythe, or raked hay in the meadows. Their arms were brown, their 
brows sunburnt, but they had honest faces. They made good wives, kept 
their houses neat and trim, scrubbing the floors and sprinkling them with 
white sand. 

They went to church on Sunday, and listened to long sermons from 
the dominie, as the minister was called. On New-year's-eve all the mem- 
bers of the family stood in front of the fire and sung a hymn to St. 
Nicholas. 

The New Englanders were ever on the move going somewhere; but 
the Dutch farmer wanted to remain at home, and there enjo} r his beer, 
sausages, pretzels, cheese, and long-stemmed pipe, which he smoked after 
breakfast, dinner, and supper on the bench beneath the porch of his 
humble home. 

They were honest, industrious, and contented. They could not under- 
stand how it was that Yankee manners, customs, and ways of doing things 
should crowd out the ideas, manners, and customs which they had inher- 
ited from their fathers. 

A Yankee moved into Albany in 1789. In a few years enough had 
joined him to elect one of their number mayor. They passed an ordi- 
nance that no eave- spout should project into the street. The Yankee 
sheriff came with ladder and saw to cut them off. The Dutch women 
ran out with their brooms to give him battle. They scolded in Dutch 
and shook their brooms at him, but he made short work with the spouts. 
It was the going out of the old, the coming in of a new, order of things 
among the Knickerbockers. 

The first settlers of New Jersey were from Sweden and Holland, but 
a company of Yankees took possession of Newark. Presbyterians came 
from Scotland and Ireland, and Quakers from New England, and crowded 
out the Dutch. 

" The people of New Jersey are a very rustical people, and deficient 
in learning," wrote Governor Belchor. That was before the Revolution. 
He meant to say that they were farmers. There were no large towns. 
There was a college at Princeton, but not many schools in the State. 

The people lived in small farm-houses. They were industrious, thrifty, 
good-natured, and kind-hearted. They passed laws against theatres, and 

4 



98 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap.VIL 



would have no cock or dog fighting, no travelling on Sunday, dancing, or 
playing of cards. To them Christinas was like all other days. They 
worked hard in summer, but in winter found their pleasure in visiting 
their friends — each housewife showing her butter and cheese, the cloth she 
had woven, and at supper setting her table with the whitest bread, sweetest 




butter, raspberry- jam, currant- jelly, cherry - sauce, blackberry, pear, and 
peach preserves. 

The people had no ^reat love for holidays— Christinas was a relic of 
Popery; Thanksgiving, dear to the people of New England, had no place 
in their affections. Scarcely a ripple disturbed the calm and almost 
motionless cm-rent of social life. 

The first settler.- of Pennsylvania were, like those of New Jersey, from 
Sweden and Holland, followed by the men and women who wore broad- 
brimmed hats and plain bonnets — the Quakers, who came with William 
Penn. People from Wales, from Scotland, and Ireland — Presbyterians, 
and other religious people who called themselves Dunkards — made Penn- 
sylvania their home. So it came about that on market-day in Philadelphia 



£790-1800. J 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 



99 



one might hear several languages and dialects spoken by the country men 
and women who came in with their eggs, chickens, butter, and cheese. 

Philadelphia was the capital of the nation. The houses were built of 

brick, with balconies or 
porches. The houses of 
the wealthy citizens were 
surrounded with gardens 
and orchards, where on 
calm summer evenings 
garden-parties were given 
to President Washington 
and the members of Con- 
gress, and gentlemen of 
Philadelphia, who carried 
gold - headed canes and 
gold snuffboxes, and wore 




A GARDEN-PARTY. 



. 



LOO 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



| Chap. VII. 



gold-laced cocked-hats! Negro servants in livery waited upon the guests, 
serving them with cake and coffee, in porcelain cups, drawn from silver 
urns. 

Many of the settlers of Pennsylvania 
were poor people who sold their services 
for lour years to the Quaker farmers, to 
pay lor their passage, food, and clothing. 
If they ran away and were caught, they 
were tied up to the whipping-post and 
flogged. If any kind-hearted friend con- 
cealed a runaway .servant, he was 
brought before the justice of 
the peace and lined. 

The farmers had ex- 
cellent gardens and raised 
cabbages, squashes, 
onions, cucumbers, 
and in cue corner 
their daughters sow- 
ed beds of thyme 
and roses and holly- 
hocks. 

They kept bees, 
which buzzed among 
the flowers and filled 
their hives with hon- 
ey. They had flocks 
of gabbling get 
ducks, and turkeys. 
They sat down to 

bountiful tables. The country people were not very intelligent. There 
were a few private schools, where the children could learn to read and 
write. 

Old women who told fortune- drove a thrifty trade. The greal pleas- 
ures of the farmers were to visit their friends and neighbors, or to invite 
them to their own houses. The Quaker farmers drank tea, and coffee, and 
cider; the Germans, beer ; the [rish, whiskey. On market-days and at 
fail's there was hard drinking among the Scotch and Irish, and some of 
them went home at night with bewildered brains, blackened eyes, and 
broken heads. 




1790-1800.] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 



101 



In the Southern States there were three classes of people — the poor 
whites, the planters, and the negroes. Many of the first settlers of Virginia 
were sent out from England as apprentices. Some of them were beggars 
and vagabonds whom the police had hustled into jail in London ; and the 
judges, that England might be rid of them, sent them to Virginia, where 
their services were sold to the planters. The descendants of the poor 
white people had a hard time. The planters treated them harshly, and the 
negroes looked down upon them; but many of them had pluck enough to 
fight their way up, and become honored and respected citizens. Yet a 
large portion had no ambition to rise. They were ignorant, for there 




ila-iif run 
OLD-TIME SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



were no common schools in the Southern States. They lived in shanties, 
ploughed a patch of ground with a mule and cow harnessed together, or. 
if they had no cow, the husband harnessed his wife with the mule. They 
raised corn and sweet potatoes, and lean, long-nosed pigs, and lived on ham 



102 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. VII. 



and hominy. They smoked corn-cob pipes, and drank raw whiskey. Their 
chief pleasure was to go to a horse-race or to the county town on court- 
days, and have wrestling-matches, or a fight in the market-places and 
gouge out each other's eyes. They hated work. The fact that the rich 
owned negro slaves made them all the more degraded. If they wanted 

f 1 they helped themselves from the planter's corn-crib, or stole chickens 

and turkeys. If found out, they were compelled to stand in the pillorv, 
sit in the stocks, or he tied up to the whipping-posfc Very few of the 




poor people in Virginia could read or write. Ignorance and crime go 
hand-in-hand, and whenever the judges held court the sheriff had a long 
hi,.- <>\' men awaiting trial, who had stolen chickens or turkeys, or com- 
mitted some other petty crime. 

The great merchants of Virginia lived in Norfolk and Alexandria. 
They purchased the tobacco raised by the planter.- and si lipped it to Eng- 
land, bringing hack silks and satins, broadcloths and cassi meres, tea. coffee, 
hardware, tables, chairs, ami bedsteads, for there were no manufactures in 
the Southern State-. 

At the country cross-roads were log store?, where the planters made their 
purchases of rum, sugar, and molasses. They owned wide reaches of land 
— woods and fields. They lived in great houses with wide halls, large 



1790-1800.] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 



103 



square rooms, piazza, and portico. There were few mechanics in Virginia, 
and there was no good carpenter or joiner work about the houses. There 
were massive beams overhead ; the wainscoting was rude ; the doors 
sagged ; the whole establishment was a piece of patchwork. Near the 
planter's house, in rear, was the cook-house, with frying-pans and bake- 
oven. The first thing the planter did in the morning was to drink a glass 
of rum and sweetened water. After breakfast he rode over his plantation, 
to see if the negroes were at work. At noon he sat down to a dinner of 
boiled ham, mutton, and cabbage. One of his neighbors dined with him, 
or he was a guest at his neighbor's house. They talked politics, or the 
price of tobacco and negroes; for slaves were wanted in South Carolina 
and Georgia, and it was beginning to be profitable to raise slaves for mar- 
ket. • Very few of the planters had any books. They knew little of what 
was going on in the world. They loved hunting, and kept packs of hounds. 
It was glorious to dash through fields and pastures, leaping fences, with 




THE FAMILY COACH. 



the hounds baying and the horn of the huntsman sounding. When the 
hunt was over they sat down to grand dinners and drank mightily of port 



and Madeira wine, rum and brandy. 



The one who could drink most be- 



104 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chai\ VII. 



fore he fell dead-drunk upon the floor was the best fellow. In the large 
towns, at parties, stately minuets were daneed to the music of a violin, the 
ladies wearing silks, satins, and brocades, which had been purchased in 
London or Paris. 

The Virginia planters were very hospitable. Living alone on their 




A VIRGINIA KITCHEN. 



greal plantations, they were lonesome, and were accustomed to send to the 
town- to invite strangers to spend the night with them. Only by such 
means could they learn of what was going on in the world, for there were 
lew newspapers, stage-coaches, or post-riders. There were no bridges across 
the rivers. Streams that could not be lorded were crossed by ferry. Aris- 
tocratic planter.- and their families rode in lumbering old coaches, going 
to church on Sundays, with driver and foot man in livery. 

The slaves lived in log-cabins, Blept on straw beds, and ate their allow- 
ance of bacon, given oul by the overseers. Their names were < 'aesar, Pom- 
pey, Cuff, Dinah, Cleopatra never a surname. They had little joy in life, 
for the master could Bell them, separating husband, and wife, and children. 
Their only joy, when the day's work was done, was to dance and sing. 



1790-1800] 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OTHER STATES. 



107 




READY FOIt Till-: HUNT. 



The people in the Southern States thought a great deal of Christmas, 
putting up evergreens in their churches, making Christmas week one of 
holidays, giving parties, and sending presents to friends and neighbors. 
All the slaves on the plantations expected a present from the great house 
on Christmas morning. It was the one da}' of the year on which the col- 
ored people were supremely happy. For a whole week they would not 
be obliged to work, and they could sing and dance from Monday morning 
till Saturday night. 

The men who crossed the Alleghanies, and settled in Kentucky and 
Tennessee, lived in log-cabins, and wore linsey-woolsey shirts and buck- 
skin breeches. They carried very few things across the mountains. The 
farmer must have an axe, a hoe. and a ploughshare. There must be an 
auger and a chisel in a neighborhood ; with these they could make their 
rude ploughs and carts. The housewife must have a Dutch -oven and 
frying-pan; with these she could begin house-keeping, eating from wooden 
plates, drinking pure spring- water from gourd -shells, sleeping on bear- 
skins. A little patch of ground supplied the family with corn, which was 
pounded with a pestle in a hollow log for hominy, or ground in a hand- 
mill for Johnny-cake, and baked on a hot stone or in the ashes. They 
ate sweet butter and drank the buttermilk. The husband's rifle supplied 
the family with venison or wild turkeys. 



L08 



lUILDINt; THE NATION. 



[Chap. STL 



There was no "rank" in society, no aristocracy of wealth or culture. 
They had few schools or hooks. 

If a young man fell in love with a girl he asked her at once to he 
his wife. There was no long courtship— no waiting till she could make 
sheets and pillow-cases or a wedding-gown. Very picturesque was a Ken- 
tucky wedding one hundred years ago. The guests met at the house 
of the bridegroom's father. Few of them had more than one suit of 
clothes in the world. The men wore leather breeches, leggings, and hunt- 
ing-shirts; the women and n - irls linsey - woolsey gowns. They rode on 







A VIRGINIA REEL. 



horseback, for there was scarcely a wagon in Kentucky, Tennessee, or 
Ohio. Before starting they took a drink of whiskey. The wedding was 
at noon, and when the ceremony was over came the grand dinner — a 
long table spread with great joints of roast beef, baked pig, turkeys, 
chicken, venison, bear's meat, bacon, eggs, ham. Johnny-cake, cabbage, 
boiled hominy, hot milk-punch, sassafras-tea, egg-nog, rum, and whiskey. 
Alter dinner the gray-headed negro fiddler put a stool upon the table, 



1797.] ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. Ill 

sat upon it, and tuned his fiddle. He was master of ceremonies. " De 
gemmen will please choose der partners," he would say. There was bow- 
ing and courtesying, and the dancing began, bride and bridegroom lead- 
ing off. Through the afternoon, the evening, the night, till the fiddler 
could no longer draw his bow, till the weary feet could no longer keep 
step, the minuets, reels, jigs, and breakdowns went on. 

In the evening, when there was a lull in the dancing, the girls stole 
the bride away, hurried her up the ladder to the loft above, and tucked 
her in bed ; then the young men in turn lifted the bridegroom up the 
ladder, and placed him beside her. 

The young couple must have a house, and their friends gave them a 
" log-rolling " — cutting logs, matching the ends, rolling them one upon 
another, building a cabin, which had a stone fireplace at one end, and at 
the other a door split from bass-wood and hung with wooden hinges. In 
such houses the young pioneers of the West began life, and laid the foun- 
dations of the great Central States of the Republic. 



112 



BU1LDINU Till; .NATION. 



[Chap. \ III. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. 

JOHN ADAMS, of Massachusetts, became President March 4, 1797, 
elected by the Federal party. France was at war with England, Aus- 
tria, and Prussia. Bonaparte was defeating the armies of Austria in Italy, 
winning victories over the Mamelukes in Egypt; but England was sweep- 
ing the French fleets from the sea. England and France alike were insult- 
ing the United States. Neither 
country respected the Stars and 
Stripes. Great Britain had near- 
ly two hundred and fifty ships, 
carrying each seventy-four guns, 
nearly three hundred frigates, and 
more than five hundred smaller 
vessels. No sailor on shore was 
safe in England from the press- 
gangs — parties of men who swept 
through the streets at night, visit- 
ing sailors' boarding-houses, the 
toddy-shops, seizing and hurrying 
them on board the war- vessels, 
to serve in the navy. Men who 
never had been to sea were seized. 
There were many lights in the 
street- of English seaports. 
The commanders of English war-ships began to impress American 
sailors — overhauling vessels and taking the sailors by force; and not only 
sailors. l»ut ships. England and France were Btill at war, and the five men 
called the "Directory," who managed affairs in France, issued an order 
that if any American sailor was found on the vessel of any nation hostile to 
France, he should he hung as a pirate. President Adam- Bent Mr. Pinck- 
ney, of South Carolina, John Marshall, of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry, 




•KilIN ADAMS. 



1797.] 



ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. 



113 




C. C. PINCKNEY. 



of Massachusetts, to Paris to negotiate a treat}'. The men in the Directory 
were corrupt, and thought that an opportunity had arrived for them to 

put money in their own pockets. 

"Pay us two hundred and forty 
thousand dollars and we will give 
you an audience," they said, and in- 
timated that if the conditions were 
not complied with orders would be 
sent to the captain of the war-ship 
to burn the towns along the sea- 
coast from Maine to Georgia. The 
blood of Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
ney took tire. " Millions for de- 
fence, but not one cent for trib- 
ute !" he said. 

The people of America took it 
up, and it rung over the hills and 
valleys, electrifying the people. Mr. 
Gerry was a Democrat, and thought it would be better to comply with the 
Directory rather than risk a war; but he found that he had mistaken 
the temper of the people. The men 
who had fought eight years to obtain 
Independence were not going to sur- 
render it in that way. They would 
fight. In 1796 Congress voted that 
six frigates should be built. Joseph 
Humphrys, of Philadelphia, prepared 
the models, and in a short time the 
ship -carpenters and calkers were at 
work — at Boston on the Constitu- 
tion, at New York on the President, 
at Philadelphia on the United States. 
They carried forty-four guns each. 
The other three — the Congress built 
at Portsmouth, N. II., the Constella- 
tion at Baltimore, the Chesapeake at 
Portsmouth, Va. — carried thirty-eight 
guns each. The old patriotism flamed up once more, 
appointed Commander-in-chief of the army. 

Out of the patriotism of 1798 came a noble song. Mi 




ELBRIDGE GERRY. 



Washington was 



Fox, of Phila- 



114 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



< IIAI-. VIII. 



delphia, was an actor, and was to have u benefit. It was to be on Monday 
night. Saturday afternoon came — only twenty boxes had been sold, and 
Mr. Fox was afraid that there would be a thin house. 

•• You must write me a patriotic song. I will advertise it, and shall 
have a full house." he said to his friend, Joseph Ilopkinson. Mr. llop- 
kinson was a lawyer, but had never written much poetry. 

"I will see what I can do. Come in to-morrow afternoon." 




SUNK IN THE III I A I 111 !\ PHILADELPHIA, 1794. 



On Sunday afternoon Mr. Fox sung the words, which Mr. Ilopkinson 
had set to the march which band-master Phyla composed when Wash- 
ington was inaugurated. 

On .Moii, lay ruin-- the bulletin-boards had the following announce- 
ment: "Mr. Fox has a benefit to-night, and will sing a new patriotic 
Bong, written by Joseph Hopkinson." 

Night came, and the theatre was full. Mr. Fox stood upon the stage, 
the band played the opening strain, and then came the song: 

II ill, Columbia, happy land ! 

Bail, ye heroes, heaven-born band ! 



1798.] ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. 115 

Who fought and bled in freedom's cause — {Repeat.) 

And when the storm of war was gone, 

Enjoyed the peace your valor won. 

Let Independence be your boast, 

Ever mindful what it cost ; 

Ever grateful for the prize, 

Let its altar reach the skies. 

Firm, united, let us be, 

Rallying round our liberty; 

As a band of brothers joined, 

Peace and safety we shall find." 

The people are wild with delight. 

" Again !" they shout. 

He sings it a second time, and the building shakes with the stamping 
of feet and clapping of hands. 

" Once more !" 

Again he sings, and the applause is wilder than ever. Once more — 
four, five, nine times — he sings it, the audience standing, men on the 
seats tossing their hats to the ceiling, ladies in the boxes waving their 
handkerchiefs. 

It has gone to the hearts of the people. It has nothing to do with 
party. It thrills all who hear it. 

The next night the theatre was crowded to hear it again. Several 
times Mr. Fox sung it. The third night another crowd was there. The 
members of Congress came to hear it. In a few days all Philadelphia 
was singing it; the New Yorkers took it up; Boston sung it. All over 
the country men of all parties sung it. Boys declaimed it in the school- 
houses of New England, kindling anew the patriotism of the nation. 

There was no declaration of war between France and the United 
States, but nevertheless war began. Thomas Truxtun, captain of the 
Constellation, came upon the small French vessel Le Croyable (14 guns), 
which was cruising to capture American merchant-ships; and as the Con- 
stellation, with her 38 guns, could quickly send her to the bottom, the 
French captain pulled down his flag. This was the first vessel captured 
by the new navy of the nation. 

Great Britain became more arrogant, and the captain of the war-ship 
Carnatic outraged the United States by seizing three American merchant- 
ships and several sailors. 

Wise men do not always act wisely. American merchants were mak- 
ing much money by trading with England. President Adams did not 
•want any trouble with that country, and issued a very humiliating order 



in; 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. viii. 



to the commanders of the American war-ships: they were not to interfere 
even if they saw an English war-ship capturing an American merchant- 
vessel! This humiliating order made the President very unpopular. 




"constellation" and "la vengeance." 



The war with Fiance on the ocean went on. In 1799 Commander 
Truxtan, in, the Constellation, fell in with the French frigate Dlnsur- 
gente. The Constellation carried 38 guns and 309 men, L 'Insurgents 40 
guns and 409 men. T\ir. fight lasted more than an hour. The French 
ship lost 70 men, and was obliged to surrender. 

■tain Truxtun had a second battle in the night, with a ship much 
■ than the Constellation -La Vengeance, which carried 54 guns. 



1798.] 



ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS. 



117 



Twice the captain of La Vengeance struck his colors, but Commander 
Truxtun did not know it, and the French ship crept away in the darkness. 
On ship and on shore sailors and landsmen sent up their hurrahs and 
sung doggerel rhymes in honor of Commander Truxtun : 

"We sailed to the West Indies in order to annoy — 
The invaders of our commerce to burn, sink, or destroy! 
Our Constellation shone so bright 
The Frenchmen could not bear the sight, 
And away they scampered in affright 
From the brave Yankee boys !" 




MEDAL TO COMMANDER TRUXTUN. 



Many Frenchmen had fled from France to the United States, and were 
making so much trouble that Congress passed an alien law, under which 
the President was authorized to send any one whom he might judge to be 
dangerous out of the country. A sedition law was passed, under which 
a man might be put in prison for publishing anything false or malicious 
against the government. The President did not send anybody out of the 
country ; no one was imprisoned ; but the Democrats had a great deal to 
say against the laws, denouncing them as tyrannical and subversive of 
liberty. 

One thistle -seed had been sown in Virginia in 1620, and in 1798 
Thomas Jefferson planted a companion seed — very harmless at the time, 
but which was destined to bring forth a terrible harvest. 

John Taylor, of Virginia, was a member of Congress, and was so bit- 
terly opposed to President Adams, and had such a hatred of the alien and 
sedition laws, that he said Virginia was not bound to respect them, and 



LI 8 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. \ III. 



that the State ought to secede from the Union, because the laws were 
unconstitutional. Jefferson and Madison sympathized with John Taylor, 
as did Mr. Nicholas, of Kentucky; and together they planted the new 
thistle-seed. Resolutions were written by Jefferson declaring the Na- 
tional Constitution to be, not a form, of government adopted by the 
people, but only a compact between the different States; that the parties 
making the agreement were not the people, but the States, as political 
corporations. 

Mr. Nicholas managed to have the Legislature of Kentucky pass the 
resolutions. James Madison changed them a little, and they were passed 
by the Virginia Legislature. John Taylor tried to have Virginia and 
North Carolina set up a confederacy, but the people were satisfied with 
the Constitution, and nothing came of the effort just then ; but the seed 
had been sown; sixty years later came the harvest. 

December, 1799, came. Washington was at Mount Vernon, living 
on his farm. He rode out, and was chilled in a storm. His throat was 
sore when he went to bed at night, and was worse in the morning. Dr. 
Craik came and bled him. Two other doctors came in, and he was bled 
again. They did what the medical books prescribed, which we now 
know was very bad treatment, lie grew worse through the day, and 
died at midnight, December 15, 1799. liis body was laid in the family 
tomb, beneath the overspreading trees, and all the world mourned his 
death. 




vO^t.-'.'- 



WASHINGTON'S Hi.Mli AT MOUNT VKRKON. 



1800.] 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 



119 



CHAPTER IX. 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 

ANEW century dawned, and with its dawning Thomas Jefferson 
became President, and Aaron Burr, of New York, Vice-President. 
There had been no choice by the electors chosen by the different States, 
and, in accordance with the Constitution, they were elected by Congress. 

A few months before they were 
elected the capital was removed 
from Philadelphia to Washing- 
ton, which was only a straggling- 
village, and where the members of 
Congress and officers of the gov- 
ernment had to live for a while 
in shanties and boarding-houses. 
There was only one hotel, and the 
President's house was only partly 
finished. Mrs. Adams, during the 
winter of 1799, used to hang her 
washing to dry in the great mi- 
finished east room. 

President Jefferson was a plain 
man. When he was inaugurated 
he would have no parade of mili- 
tary, but rode alone and on horse- 
back to the capital, tied the horse to a post, entered the Capitol, took the 
oath of office, and rode back to his house. 

He was hospitable, and so democrat it; that members of Congress, stran- 
gers, anybody and everybody, who called upon him were welcome to sit 
down to his long dining-table, where they found plain, wholesome food, 
and but little cake. 

President Jefferson was far-sighted. People were swarming into Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana. Ho saw that in time the Ohio and 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



L20 



lUILDLNi; THE NATION. 



[ Chap. IX. 



Mississippi were to be highways to the sea for the whole central portion 

of the continent. But France held Louisiana — nut the State alone which 

now hears the name, hut all the country west 
of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains 
and the Rio Grande. St. Louis and Tsew 
Orleans were inhabited by French people. 
The President sent Robert R. Livingston of 
New York and James Monroe to Paris, to see 
if the country along the Mississippi to the 
ocean could he purchased. Bonaparte want- 
ed money, and was ready to sell all of the 
territory owned by France for $15,000,000, 
and they quickly signed the treaty. " "We 
have lived long, but this is the noblest work 
of our lives," said Mr. Livingston as he laid 
down the pen. 
So the United States obtained possession of the country from the Mis 

sissippi to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

head waters of the Mississippi. 




ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, 




\i (.11 rs in 1800. 



\n ..ne knew anything about the country but what had been learn- 
ed from hunters. The President sent Captain Meriwether Lewis and 
Captain William Clarke np the Missouri to make explorations. They 



1800.] 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 



121 



crossed the Rocky Mountains, descended the Columbia to the sea, and re- 
turned after an absence of three years, giving to the world the first authen- 
tic intelligence of the interior of the continent — of its great rivers, far- 
reaching prairies, and lofty mountains. Not till their return did the world 
have any idea of the wonderful resources and unmeasured capabilities of 
the vast domain, and of the possibilities for the future greatness of the 
American people. 

The United States Government had been so slow to resent the in- 
sults and outrages of France and England, that Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, 
and Tripoli — the Barbary States in Africa — set themselves to capturing 
American vessels, selling their crews as slaves. Not only American but 
French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian — vessels of all nations — were 
plundered by the pirates, who asked great prices for the ransom of the 
crews from slavery. The sailors 
were whipped, kicked, cuffed by 
their cruel masters. The United 
States, to purchase the good - will 
of these pirates, made presents ev- 
ery year of cannon, powder, and 
money. 

The President sent Captain 
Bainbridge, in the ship George 
Washington, to pay the tribute for 
1800. The Governor of Algiers 
was insolent and arrogant. 

" I want you to carry my am- 
bassador to Constantinople," he said. 

"I cannot do it," Bainbridge 
replied. 

" You pay me tribute ; you are 
my slaves, and I have the right to 
order you to do as I please," said the governor 
were pointed toward the George Washington, and he was- obliged to sail 
to Constantinople, with the ambassador on board. The Sultan saw a 
strange flag floating from the mast-head of a vessel in the Bosphorus — 
the Stars and Stripes — and was astonished to learn that far away in the 
West there was a new nation, the United States. 

The Sultan was much pleased with Commander Bainbridge, ami gave 
him a firman (or paper) to protect him from the insolence of the Governor 
of Algiers. Bainbridge sailed back to that port. 




WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. 



The guns of the castle 



122 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



( ( MAI'. IX. 




MOORS GRINDING SWORDS. 



« I want yon to go back again to Constantinople," said the governor, 
intending to make him fetch and carry at his pleasure. 

" I shall not go !" 

The governor flew into a rage, and was ready to draw his sword and 
strike down the man who had refused to do his bidding. 



1800.] 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 



123 




" Here is the Sultan's fir- 



man 



[NTERIOR OF A MOORISH CAFE 



The governor bowed low. 

" What can I do for you ?" 

" Yon will instantly release 
the French Consul and sixty Frenchmen, whom you have put in prison." 

The governor did not dare refuse, and Commander Bainbridge had the 
pleasure of carrying the consul and his countrymen across the Mediter- 
ranean to Frauee. The Governor of Tripoli was Yussuf Caramelli, who 
had murdered his father and eldest brother, and compelled his next older 
brother, Ilamet, to flee to Egypt. He was cruel, blood-thirsty, and insolent, 
He was not satisfied with what he received from the United States, but 
demanded a large sum of money, and, because it was not paid, captured 
several American vessels, and made slaves of the crews. 

Commodore Dale sailed with ships to bring them to terms, but the 
pirates sharpened their swords, thinking to make quick work with the 



124 BUILDING THE NATION. J hap. IX. 

Americans. One of Commodore Dale's vessels was the Enterprise, com- 
manded by Lieutenant Sterrit, who was off Malta when a small vessel with 
two masts, carrying several guns, ran along-side, hoisted a red flag with a 
crescent upon it, and poured in a broadside. The sailors of the Enterprise 
sprung to their guns, rim them out of the port-holes, and returned the fire, 
keeping it up till the Algerines surrendered. Captain Sterrit lowered a 
boat, to send an officer on board, when up went the flag again, and an- 
other broadside came crashing into the Enterprise. The sailors, indignant 
at such trickery, fired with more vigor than ever, till the Algerine once 
more hauled down his colors. Again the officer started to take possession 
of the craft, when up it went once more. 

"Sink her! send the pirates to the bottom!" shouted Captain Sterrit,. 
and the shot from the guns of the Enterprise went crashing into the ves- 
sel till the deck ran with blood, and the pirates jumped one by one into 
the sea, and the treacherous captain pulled down his flag once more, and 
this time threw it overboard. 

" This is the tribute which the United States pays you !" shouted Cap- 
tain Sterrit. 

The Enterprise had not a man injured. The pirate captain reached 
the shore, made his way to Tripoli; but the governor, angry at the loss of 
the vessel, had him paraded through the streets on a jackass, then thrown 
upon the ground, bound with ropes, and five hundred blows struck upon 
his bare feet. 

In 1803 Commander Preble was sent out to carry on the war, and he 
quickly brought the Governor of Morocco to terms. One of his frigates 
was the Philadelphia, a. new and beautiful vessel, commanded by Captain 
Bainbridge, who saw a vessel making for the harbor of Tripoli and gave 
chase, when suddenly he found himself on a sunken reef, and the forward 
part of the noble ship high out of water on the rocks. 

Be ran all the forward guns aft, set the sailors to work hoisting the 
water-casks in the forepart of the hold to lighten the ship; then he threw 
the cannon overboard, cur down the foremast, but it would not move. 

In the harbor of Tripoli were several of the enemy's gun-boats, They 
saw their opportunity, and opened lire Captain Bainbridge, seeing that 
there was no hope of getting the Philadelphia free, had to strike his 
colors. 

The gun-boats ran along-side, the Tripolitans leaping on board, seizing 
officers and sailors, stripping them half naked. It was a bitter moment 
when they were driven into the boats of the pirates, taken on shore, and 
put in prison, the sailors to be sold as slaves. 



1803.] 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 



125 



The Governor was greatly elated over his prize. He took out the can- 
non, lightened the ship till it floated once more, then towed it into the 
harbor, moored it under the guns of his castle, put the cannon on board 
and a crew of one thousand men. In a few days he would have it out on 
the Mediterranean. 

Commander Preble was at Syracuse, on board the Constitution, with 
Lieutenant Decatur command- 
ing the Enterprise. It never 
would do to let the pirates 
keep possession of the Phila- 
delphia. It would be a dis- 
grace to the United States ; 
and a plan was formed to de- 
stroy it. 

The Governor of Tripoli 
was accustomed to send pres- 
ents to the Sultan; and one of 
his presents was twenty women 
slaves, which he put on board 
a two-masted vessel, the ketch 
Mastico. But, as things came 
about, the Sultan did not re- 
ceive the present, for Lieuten- 
ant Decatur fell in with the 
vessel and captured it, set the 

slaves at liberty, and re -named the vessel Intrepid. He laid his plan to 
use it to destroy the Philadelphia. He called for volunteers. Every 
man on the Enterprise was ready : they were on fire to take part in the 
glorious work. He chose Lieutenant Lawrence, Lieutenant Bainbridge, 
Lieutenant Horn, Midshipman McDonough, Doctor Harinan, and Midship- 
men Izard, Morris, Davis, and Rowe for his officers. There were seventy- 
four men in all. The sailors rolled up balls of oakum and saturated them 
with tar, so that they would burn quickly, and stowed them in the hold of 
the Intrepid. 

Accompanied by the sloop Siren, they sailed for Tripoli. But a 
furious storm came on, which swept over the little vessel and wet their 
meat, so that they had nothing but bread. For six days they were tossed 
about ; but the storm passed by, and on a dark night they entered the 
harbor of Tripoli. They could see the Philadelphia at anchor close 
in shore under the jruns of the fort. Lieutenant Decatur had drilled his 




EDWARD l'KKHLE. 



126 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. IX, 



men. Each officer knew just what he was expected to do. "Philadelphia" 
was the watchword which they were to give in the darkness. To get 
along-side and on board was all they wanted — their swords would do the 

rest. It was to be a fight of seventy- four against one thousand. 

Slowly the Intrepid floated in. 
Decatur, and the pilot, a native of 
Malta who knew the harbor, and 
the man at the helm, alone stood; 
the rest were all secreted. 
" What ship is that ?" 
It was the sentinel on the Phila- 
delphia who (tailed. 

•■ A ship from France. We have 
lost our anchors in the storm, and 
want to make fast to yours till morn- 
ing," said the pilot, steering straight 
on. "We have a cargo of wines, 
raisins, and olives," he added, to al- 
lay all suspicion. A couple of sail- 
ors stepped into a boat and carried 
a warp to the Philadelphia and fast- 
ened it. 

""Pull!" It was a whisper, but 
the sailors, lying flat on the deck of the Intrepid, gave a pull, and the ves- 
sel began to surge along-side. 

" Amerikanoes ! Amerikanoes!" 

Another pull, and Decatur, Morris, and Rowe are on board. Up over 
the bulwarks, through the port-holes, swarm the sailors. There is an out- 
cry — a hubbub. The Tripolitans, frightened, not knowing what is going 
on, leap through the port-holes on the other side or plunge from the deck 
into the sea. Ten minutes, and Decatur and his men are in possession. 
A rocket shoots up toward heaven. It is to let those on the Siren, out in 
the harbor, know that all is well. 

••Oh, if Lieutenant Decatur could but take the ship out to sea! But 
lie cannot. There is not a -ail upon the yards; all have been taken down. 
In a few minutes the gun-boat-, close by, will be upon him, and the cannon 
of the fort will thunder, dp from the hold of the Intrepid cine the 
balls of oakum. Buckets of tar are emptied upon the deck. When all is 
ready, the fire is kindled, the tar-balls burst into a blaze, and the flames 
run along the deck and hiss up into the rigging. The sailors jump 




STEPHEN I'll A 11 R, 



1803. J WAR WITH ALGIERS. 12? 

aboard the Intrepid, cut the ropes that bind them to the Philadelphia 
with their swords, and sail away. 

Three cheers ring out upon the air. The cannon of the gun-boats and 
forts flamed. Shot fell around them, tossing the spray into the air; one 
cuts through the sail — but what care they for that? The ship is aflame 
from stern to stem, from bulwark to topmast, lighting up the harbor, 
Upward leap the flames, heating the loaded cannon, which go off one by 
one, sending their shot crashing into Tripoli, arousing the Governor from 
his slumbers, who can only gnash his teeth with rage. 

Out to the fleet sails the Intrepid, not one of the seventy-four men on 
board receiving so much as a scratch. 

There was desperate fighting in the harbor of Tripoli during the sum- 
mer of 1803. The governor had a brig, two schooners, and nineteen gun- 
boats, besides strong forts. In all he had one hundred and fifteen cannon, 
and an army of twenty-five thousand men. There were dangerous reefs 
and rocks in the harbor, of which Commander Preble was more afraid 
than of the forts and gun-boats. His great difficulty was to get at the 
pirates. Where there is a will there is usually a way. He manned his 
gun-boats, which sailed boldly in, and fell upon the pirates, sinking and 
capturing six vessels. Three days later there was another fight, in which 
a shot from one of the forts went through the magazine of one of the 
American gun- boats, which exploded, killing two officers and ten men. 
The boat was sinking, but before it went down Midshipman Spence and 
eleven men finished loading their twenty-four-pounder at the bow, fired 
it, swung their hats, gave three cheers, and the next moment were swim- 
ming for the other boats. 

When Commander Preble found out where, the sunken rocks were he 
sailed in, and the Constitution poured her broadsides into the pirate fleet, 
and solid shot and shell into the town, silenced the guns on the forts, 
sunk one vessel, and sailed out again, not a man on the gallant ship hav- 
ing been hurt. 

But there was a sad loss. One of the officers thought that the pirate 
vessels might be set on fire by a fire-ship, and it was determined to try it 
by sending in the Intrepid. One hundred barrels of powder were placed 
on board; balls of oakum, were soaked in tar; splinters and kindlings 
heaped on the deck. A boat's crew were to tow the vessel in at night, 
set the kindlings on fire, and then make their escape. The explosion 
of the powder it was thought would send the flaming balls of oakum 
among the Tripolitan ships and set them on fire. 

The night was very dark; the Intrepid disappeared in the gloom,. 



128 



BUILDING THE NATION'. 



[Chap. I.\ 




Suddenly there 
was a bright Hash 
a broad sheet — 
lighting the bay, 
harbor, town, and 
castle; there was an earth- 
quake shock ; then all was 
dark. "What had happened 
no one ever knew, for the In- 
sckm, in tamgierb. t rrpid had ii ot reached the 

point for which it started, 
and all on board, all in the boats, had been instantly killed. 

The man who had killed his oldest brother, and driven his next older 
brother, Hamet, to Egypt and seized the throne, found himself in a sore 
strait. General Eaton, of the United States, and Hamet were on their 
way from Egypt across the desert with an army. They captured the 



H.KtU lOK 



1800.] 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 



129 



town of Derne, and would soon be approaching Tripoli. The Americans 
had nearly destroyed his fleet; they had battered the walls of the forts; 
the people in the town were starving; his troops soon would fall away; 
and, to save himself, he became very humble, and hastened to make peace 
with the United States. 

For many years the Barbary pirates had plundered the vessels of 




all nations, and made slaves of the 
hated Christians, but never before 
had they received such chastise- 
ment as that given by the Amer- 
icans. 

"The Americans," said Pius 
VII., Pope of Rome, "have done 
more for Christendom against the 
pirates of Africa than all the powers of Europe united." 

More than this had been accomplished. Europe began to comprehend 

5 



Till. UKSKI1T. 



130 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.IX 

that there was a new nation beyond the Atlantic ; and still more, the new 
nation began to respect itself. Be it an individual or a nation, there must 
first be self-respect to command respect from others. And still more, tho 
officers and sailors who had performed deeds of valor in the harbor of 
Tripoli were at school preparing for struggles with a nation that gloried 
in being mistress of the seas. 



1802.1 



OPENING YEARS OF THE CENTURY. 



131 



CHAPTER X. 



OPENING YEARS OF THE CENTURY. 

WHEN Virginia ceded the North-west Territory to the United States 
in 1787, a tract of land between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami 
was reserved for the payment of the bounties voted the soldiers who 
fought during the Revolution. Nathaniel Massie — who was only twenty 
years old when he crossed the Alleghanies — who had studied surveying, 
went to explore the country in 
1791. There was the settlement 
at Marietta, which the Connecti- 
cut people had made, and Fort 
Washington, which Major Luce 
had built at Cincinnati ; but the 
country was all a wilderness, and 
the Indians claimed it as theirs. 

Nathaniel Massie alone, or ac- 
companied by Duncan Mc Arthur, 
made his way through the soli- 
tudes, lying down upon the ground 
when night came, living on bears' 
meat and venison, or catching fish 
for breakfast or supper; keeping 
a sharp lookout for Indians, who 
would have hunted him down if 
they had known what he was do- 
ing — selecting lands suitable for occupation by soldiers who were to follow. 

He visited Kentucky, and gave such an account of the country that 
some of the people in Bourbon County, who belonged to the Presbyterian 
Church, and who did not like slavery, determined to make Ohio their 
home. Sixty of them, with their rifles, crossed the Ohio in 1795, with 
Nathaniel Massie to lead them, and made their way up the Scioto Valley. 
They came upon a party of Indians, who tired upon them. There was a 




NATHANIEL MASS IK. 



132 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. X. 



battle. One of the Kentuckians was killed and two wounded. The In- 
dians lied, after having several killed and wounded. The Kentuckians saw 
how beautiful the country was, and went back to prepare for a settlement. 
The next spring (1796) a larger party started — some by land, and 



others in boats up the Scioto — 
ploughs. They selected a site. 




v n 



with oxen and 
built their cab- 
ins, and named 
the plaee Chil- 
licothe. While 
the ploughmen 
turned their fur- 
rows along the 
river- bank and 
planted corn, the 
ilant watch for 



others kept 
Indians. 

The people of Connecticut, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
and New York heard of the rich- 
ness of the lands in Ohio, and a 
great number of emigrants left 
their Eastern homes to become 



.H ST ITE-HOI SE, i nil. I. n in 'HE. 



citizens of the rising State- 



-SO 



many of them that in 1S02 the 
seventeenth State was added to the Union. Its capital was Chillicothe, 
laid out by Nathaniel Massie, who was elected first governor. 



Coward ! To be called a coward brings the hot blood to the cheeks of 
brave men. A coward is a fellow of mean spirit, who has not the courage 
to face danger when duty calls him. At the beginning of this century a 
gnat many good men had false estimates of what constitutes true courage. 
A man who would not light a duel when challenged, no matter what the 
cause, was branded as a coward. Away back in early times, in England 
and Europe, if men had differences they settled them by fighting. Many 
duels were fought in England by dukes, lords, members of Parliament, 
and officers of the army and navy. 

In 1Su2 De Witt Clinton and John Swartwout, of Xew York, fought a 
due], and the next year Clinton fought General Dayton. If a gentleman 
did not fight when challenged, other gentlemen looked down upon him 
and Bhnnned his presence. 



1802.] 



OPENING YEARS OF THE CENTURY. 



133 



What will people say ? That was the question which men asked. Pub- 
lic sentiment replied that men who would not fight duels when challenged 
were of mean spirit. Men knew that to fight a duel was a crime — against 
law, against God — yet they had not the moral courage to say so. 

When General Arnold made his terrible march through the wilderness 
from Maine to Canada, to attack Quebec, in 1776 — his troops eating their 
knapsacks and boots for want of food — one of the officers accompanying 
him was Aaron Burr, nineteen years of age [see "Boys of '76"]. He was 
bold and daring, and Washington appointed him one of his aids; but he 
did not stay long upon the staff, for lie disliked Washington. He joined 
General Lee and General Gates in a scheme to have Washington deposed 
from being Commander-in-chief. When the war was over he became a 
lawyer, and made his home in New York, and was elected Senator in Con- 
gress. He was a candidate for 
the Presidency, and had the same 
number of electoral votes as Jef- 
ferson ; but there being no choice, 
Congress elected him Vice-Presi- 
dent — the Federal members of 
Congress, through the influence of 
Hamilton, giving their votes for 
Jefferson, and making Burr Vice- 
President. It was 
very hard for him 
to bear the disap- 
pointments of politi- 
cal ambition. To be 
President was the 
highest possible hon- 
or, and we need not 
wonder that Aaron 
Burr had a grudge 
against the man who 
had upset his plans. 
Alexander Ham- 
ilton was born in 
Bermuda, but was 
taken to Now York 
when he was a small 
boy. 




MASSIE S MONUMENT. 



134 



i;nu>i\<; the nation. 



[ciiAr.X 




AARON limit. 



In 1 774-, when he was only seventeen, he made a remarkable speech 
against the King. He wrote articles for the newspapers, and showed that 
he was a true patriot. When the war began he was appointed to com- 
mand an artillery company, and 
kepi his cannon thundering at 
the battle of White Plains [see 
"Boys of '76"]. He fought at 
Trenton. Washington thought 
so much of him that he made 
him his trusted friend and ad- 
viser. He was in the battle of 
Yorktown, and captured a Brit- 
ish battery. When the war was 
over he became a lawyer, lie 
was one of the framers of the 
Constitution, and did more than 
any other man to secure its 
adoption. 

Washington made him Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. The 
country was in debt, but he thought out a plan by which the nation paid 
its debts and brought great prosperity. When the trouble with France 
began Washington was made Commander-in-chief; Hamilton was a major- 
general, and second in command, lie was a generous man, ever ready to 
oblige his friends, and even those who were opposed to him politically. 
Aaron Burr was in debt. Early one morning he called at Hamilton's 
house in great trouble. He must have ten thousand dollars — a great sum 
in those days — to satisfy his creditors, or go to jail. Hamilton obtained 
the money for him, and saved him from arrest. 

Burr was Vice-President, bu1 could never hope to be elected President; 
but he determined to lie Governor of New Fork, and induced some of his 
friends to nominate him. The Federalists had no candidate, but cast their 
votes, through the influence of Hamilton, for a Democrat, Chancellor Lan- 
sing, who was elected. 

- lluii- is a dangerous man. and not lit to l»e Governor," said Hamil- 
ton, at a dinner-party. 

Doctor Cooper was one of the quests, and unwisely repeated it in pub- 
lic, and wrote thus to a friend: " I could detail a still more despicable 
opinion which Hamilton has of him." The friend published the letter in 
a newspaper, which was a violation of confidence. 



1804.] 



OPENING YEARS OF THE CENTURY. 



135 



Burr was smarting over his defeat. Hamilton had spoiled all his plans. 
He would have his revenge. He wrote a letter demanding an apology, 
but would not accept Hamilton's explanation, and sent a challenge. 

Cain, the first murderer, and all murderers since then, have found a 
way to pick a quarrel when determined on revenge. Hamilton had no 
quarrel with Burr — why should he accept the challenge ? Because, if he 
did not tight, people would call him a coward. He had proved at White 
Plains, Trenton, Princeton, and Yorktown that he was a brave man ; but 
if he did not meet Burr in single combat, and do what his own conscience 
and reason said he had no right to do, he would be called a coward ! He 
wrote a tender letter to his wife, and bought a beautiful bouquet for her, 
bade her an affectionate good-night, arose at daybreak, stole softly out of 
his beautiful home, walked down to the river, stepped into a boat with Mr. 
Pendleton and a doctor, and was rowed across the Hudson to Weehawken. 
The sun was just rising as he landed at the foot of the Palisades. Burr, 
Mr. Van Ness, and Dr. Hosack were there. Burr had been practising with 
his pistol for several weeks, determined to put an end to the man who had 
thwarted him in his ambitious designs. They took their pistols. 




^BBNM 



HP ■ 



w$ 









JUKI. BETWEEN HAMILTON AND BURR 



"Are you ready?" asked Mr. Pendleton, who was to give the word. 
"Present!" 

Burr raises his pistol, takes deliberate aim. A flash, a puff of smoke, a 



130 



buildim; the nation. 



[Chap. X. 



crack, and Hamilton falls headlong, his pistol going off, the ball cutting a 

twig from a tree. 

Burr gazes a moment, then hastens with his friends to his boat, reaches 
home, and eats his breakfast as if nothing had happened. 







'■V„V,,,.. * '-- 



WHERE HAMILTON KKLL. 



"I had no ill-will toward him ; I did not intend to fire," are the words 
of Hamilton as his friends bear him to the boat. 

"Oeneral Hamilton was shot l>y Colonel Burr this morning in a duel. The general is 
laid to he mortally wounded." 

That was what the people of New York read on the bulletin-board of 
the Tontine hotel at nine o'clock. Ail New York held its breath. Busi- 
ness stopped. Through the day and night men asked for the latest news, 
till death ended the suspense the next alien n. 

Never had there been so mournful a funeral in Ameriea — stores closed, 
flags at half-mast — a stately procession, minute-guns tiring at the Battery — 
th<- British frigate; and two French war-ships in the harbor responding to 
the <;uns en shore — for Hamilton's fame had crossed the Atlantic — all 
the church bells tolling. There had been processions ami orations at the 
burial of Washington, but this was a funeral with indignation and anger 
mingled with the grief. 

Washington's death was by the visitation of (bid, but Hamilton had 
been shot by a man who had thirsted for his blood. 

Little did Aaron Burr, when he sat down to his breakfast so calmly, 
comprehend what would be the outcome of that morning's work : that 
before the week was over he would be fleeing to escape the indigna- 
tion of the community. Quite likely he thought that the people would 



1804.] 



OPENING YEARS OF THE CENTURY. 



137 



applaud him for killing the man who stood in his way. Far different. 
Murderer ! assassin ! were the words that greeted him. He had shot the 
man who had opposed him politically, but who had befriended him pri- 
vately. His friends — those who had urged him on — slunk away before 
the burning indignation of the people. The wave went over the country. 
From the pulpits in the Northern States Burr was denounced as an assas- 
sin. Ministers preached against duelling. Grand-juries in New York and 
New Jersey indicted him for murder. Sheriffs were in pursuit of him. 
At midnight he entered a boat, and was rowed down the river to Perth 
Amboy. He called upon Commodore Truxtun, who gave him a breakfast, 




BLENNERIIASSET S HOUSE. 



but who told him plainly that he had killed his friend. By cross-roads he 

reached Philadelphia and passed on to Virginia — not there to find averted 

faces, but to be welcomed as one who had done a noble deed. 

5* 



13S 



BUILDING II IK NATION. 



[Chap. X. 



At Petersburg his friends gave him a banquet, accompanied him to the 
theatre, and the audience cheered him. lie went on to South Carolina to 
see his daughter Theodosia, wife of Governor Alston. The people of that 




IING DOWN Till: 



section of the country did not regard him with any less favor, for they be- 
lieved that to fight a duel was u good way to vindicate one's honor. 

N«»r bo in the Northern States. The pistol-shot fired on that morning 
so fatal to Hamilton was ringing through the land. The Rev. Dr. Nott, of 
Schenectady, New York, preached a notable sermon on the sin and crime 
of duelling. Other ministers took it up. Editors wrote against it in the 
newspapers. There was an awakening of the moral Bense of the sober- 
minded and thinkiiig people of the Northern States, other duels were 
fought; hut from that, dune morning in 1S<>4- when Hamilton fell, with 
the blood oozing from his side, men who gave or accepted a challenge, 
instead of gaining, lost the reaped of their fellow-men. 

Burr's plans had miscarried; but he had another scheme. In Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and Ohio were restless men — hunters and adventurers — 
who were ready for any exploit or expedition. The resolutions of L798, 
which Thomas Jefferson had written for the Kentucky Legislature in re- 



1805.] 



OPENING YEARS OF THE CENTURY. 



139 



gard to the reserved rights of the States were having their effect. The 
people of Kentucky and Tennessee, in 1805, cared very little for the 
Constitution or the Union. Spain owned Mexico. Burr conceived the 
plan of descending the Mississippi with the restless spirits, seize New 
Orleans, fit out an expedition, conquer that country, and set himself up 
as king. He made friends with Mr. Blennerhasset, who had settled on 
an island in the Ohio River, who was wealthy, and who had a beauti- 
ful and ambitious wife, who entered into all of Burr's plans. Men 
were enlisted, boats built, and the adventurers made their way down the 
river. General Wilkinson, who had been appointed Governor of Louis- 
iana, aided Burr, but in the end deserted him. President Jefferson issued 
a proclamation against him. He was arrested and tried for high-treason, 
but the jury did not find him guilty, and he was released. He became a 
lawyer again in New York ; but influence, power, happiness were gone 
forever. 



William Henry, who lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was very in- 
genious. He saw that the au- 
gers used by carpenters — in 
shape like half of a pea -pod, 
and called pod augers — were 
very poor implements, and in- 
vented an auger with a screw, 
which made boring much ea- 
sier. Pie made the first rag car- 
pet ever seen in America. He 
made guns, and did a great deal 
of tinkering. He heard about 
the steam-engines which James 
Watt and Matthew Boulton were 
building in England, and crossed 
the Atlantic to visit his friends 
in Ireland and get a look at the 
now and wonderful machines 
being driven by steam. He came 
home, built an engine, and put 

it into a boat in Conestoga Creek, thinking to move the boat by steam; 
but the boat went to the bottom of the creek, and he gave up the attempt. 

John Fitch, James Rumsey, of Virginia; Samuel Morey, of Orford, 
New Hampshire; William Symington, of England — all had tried to <•"!!- 




ROBERT PULTON. 



1 to 



I'.l II.DI.N". TIIK NATION. 



[Chap. X. 




R0BER1 II LTON'S BIRTHPLACE. 



struct steamboats, but the world was still waiting for such a mode of 
navigation. 

One of the boys who used to visit William Henry's shop and see him 
make guns was Robert Fulton, who was born in Little Britain, Penn- 
sylvania, near Lancaster, and 
who used to set water-wheels 

. . . ■ •- ■ 

whirling in the pasture brooks. 
He saw the model of the little 
steamboat which Mr. Henry 
constructed. Lie met Thomas 
Paine fit Mr. Henry's, and many 
other prominent men, and saw 
upon the M'alls of Mr. Henry's 
parlor pictures painted by Ben- 
jamin West, whom Mr. Henry 
had befriended, who had trav- 
elled in Europe, and had be- 
come a famous painter. 

While looking at the pict- 
ures Robert Fulton forgot his 
mill-wheels, and resolved to become an artist, lie went to England, and 
studied painting under Mr. "West's instruction. He saw the steam-engines 
constructed by Watt and Bonlton,and all his love for machinery came back 
to him. He gave up painting and became an engineer, went to Paris, and 
made experiments with torpedoes for blowing up war-ships. He built a 
steamboat sixty-six feet long, launched it on the Seine; but the bottom 
dropped out, and the engine went to the bottom of the river. 

Fulton returned to the United States. The grand idea had taken pos- 
session of him that steam could be used in navigation. Robert Living- 
ston, Chancellor of New York, believed that it could be done. He lived 
at Clermont, on the Hudson. Together they built a boat 133 feet long, 
18 wide, and feet dee]), and named it the Clermont. People laughed at 
them; predicted its failure. When all was ready they invited their friends 
on board. Fulton let on the steam, but the boat did not move. 
"I told yon it wouldn't work," said one of the party. 
-Wait.'" said Fulton. 

He fixed the machinery, and the boat moved away from the shore, and 
up the Hudson. The country people knew not what to make of it. 

" The devil is on his way up-river with a saw-mill in a boat!" shouted 
a Dutchman to his wife. 



1807.] 



OPENING YEARS OE THE CENTURY. 



141 



' ''- s=£§j^l 



HI 

iMMm krflt 




THE "CLERMONT." 

In thirty-two liours the Clermont was at Albany, a distance of one 
hundred and fifty miles, and returned to New York in thirty hours. 

This was what the New York Evening Post said, October 2, 1S07: 
"Mr. Fulton's new-invented steamboat, winch is fitted up in a neat style for 
passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a packet, 
left here this morning, with ninety passengers, against a strong head-wind. 
Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved at the rate of six miles 
an hour.'' 

Fulton had succeeded where John Fitch, James Rumsey, and Samuel 
Morey had failed. It was the beginning of a new era in navigation. 



142 BUILDING THE NATION. [ClUP.XL 



CHAPTER XL 

HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 

WHO owned the ocean "i Great Britain claimed to be mistress of the 
seas. Her fleets were victorious everywhere. The poets of Eng- 
land were praising- her prowess. James Thomson, who wrote a charming 
poem, "The Seasons," wrote exultingly of her power: 

"When Britain first, at Heaven's command, 
Arose from out the azure main, 
This was the charter of the land, 

And guardian angels sung the strain — 
Rule, Britannia ; Britannia rule-; the waves! 
Britons never shall be slaves." 

The merchants of England wanted to do all the carrying of the world, and 
they looked with jealous e}'es across the Atlantic to New England, whose 
merchant -ships were on every sea. England and France were at war. 
Bonaparte was sweeping over Europe with his armies. England had de- 
stroyed not only the war-ships but the merchant-ships of France; and the 
merchants of the United States were in consequence making a great deal 
of money. Great Britain was not going to allow the trade of the world to 
slip through her fingers. "Trade carried on with the enemies of England 
Is war in disguise.'* wrote James Stephens, one of the lawyers of England : 
and the English Government, with such a pretext, began to seize American 
vessels and confiscate the goods. 

To prevent Bonaparte from raising supplies from any other country, 
Greal Britain declared the whole sea-coasl of Europe, from the river Elbe, 
in Prussia, to Brest, in France, under blockade. To blockade a seaport is 
to close it to commerce by war-vessels stationed off the harbors to prevent 
merchant-vessels of other nations from going in and out. 

"Every blockade to be binding must be effective" England had de- 
clared it many times; but though she had one thousand war-ships, they 
were not enough to blockade all the seaports of Northern Europe. 



1812.] 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



143 




Bonaparte had lost nearly all his fleets, but he issued a decree from 
.Berlin in retaliation : " The British Islands are in a state of blockade. 
All commerce and correspondence with them is prohibited. All letters 
written in the English language shall be seized." 

" There shall be no trade between France and her allies and other na- 
tions without the consent of Great Brit- 
ain," said the British Government, in 
response. 

" The nation which permits its ves- 
sels to be searched by British vessels, or 
which shall pay a tax to the British Gov- 
ernment, or which shall be bound to a 
British port, shall be seized and held," 
was the order issued by Bonaparte from 
Milan, December, 1807. 

France began to seize American ships. 
The merchants of Boston, Salem, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore soon 
began to receive news that their ships 
and goods had been captured, either by 
the English or French. An English war- 
ship, the Leopard, fired into the American ship Chesapeake, which was all 
unprepared for fighting, and took several sailors, compelling them to serve 
on board the Leopard. The English Government disavowed the act, but 
made no apology or reparation. 

The United States was powerless to protect American merchant-ships; 
but Congress thought that if all trade between the United States and for- 
eign countries were stopped, the necessities of England and France would 
compel them to come to terms, and a law was passed laying an embargo, <»r 
prohibition, on trade. Congress did not see that the United States would 
be biting off its own nose: that American vessels would soon be rotting at 
the wharves; ship-masters and merchants would become bankrupt; that 
grass would grow in the streets of the seaport towns; yet that was the re- 
sult. The ships were idle; the merchants could not pay their debts — the 
sheriffs closed their stores : sailors had nothing to do ; ship-carpenters laid 
aside their axes, the calkers and sail-makers their tools. In all seaport 
towns there was silence and distress. 

In the country, on the other hand, the spinning-wheels were humming 
as never before — women and girls at work from morning till night. In- 
stead of depending upon England for cloth, they were manufacturing it. 



JAMES MADISON. 



1-14 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XL 

All the arts and trades were at work — hatters, shoemakers, tailors. It was 
the period of homespun — the beginning of American manufacturing. ( "ti- 
gress had prohibited the bringing of British goods, but the President and 
a great army of custom-house officials could not stop smuggling. Swift- 
sailing vessels made voyages to the West Indies, landing their goods at 
night along the shores. There was smuggling between Canada and the 
United States — men making their way stealthily across the boundary, 
bringing broadcloth, needles, pins, goods of every description — secreting 
them in out-of-the-way places, eluding the vigilance of the custom-house 
officers. 

An officer in Vermont had a prank played upon him. A smuggler 
came from Canada with a cask standing on end in his wagon. 

"Ho! ho! I must see what is in there," said the officer, pounding in 
the head. 

There was nothing but a little lampblack in the cask, which the smug- 
gler had covered with a paper. 

- \\ nat have you here?" asked the officer. 

" You must see for yourself." 

The officer puts his head into the cask, the smuggler gives a sudden lift 
to his heels, and he tumbles in. Over the stones rattles the wagon, the 
driver whipping his horse to a run — the bumping and rattling raising a 
black, suffocating cloud in the cask, tilling eyes, nose, ears, and mouth 'of 
the officer, and almost stifling him before he can get out. 

People in the seaports were suffering, people in the country prosper- 
ing, under the law. Those who suffered felt it to be an unjust law. The 
smugglers excused themselves under the plea that the law was unjust and 
unconstitutional, because unequal: that it was not doing wrong to violate 
it. The prospect of making money made men deceitful. The law. upon 
the whole, was not promotive of public welfare or morality, and became 
very unpopular. It injured far more than it helped. 

In 1808 James Madison became President. The Indians in Ohio were 
making trouble. British officers in Canada and of the North-west Fur 
Company told them that the United States had no right to the lands in 
Ohio. They sold them gun- ami ammunition. One of the Indian chiefs 
Tecumtha, who saw that the Americans were rapidly increasing, and 
unless driven back would soon have possession of the whole country, lie 
formed :l plan to enlist all the tribes, and drive the settlers out of Ohio. 
He visited the powerful Creek [ndians in Alabama, made speeches, and 
taught them the war-dance of the northern tribes. 



1812.] 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



145 



Florida belonged to Spain, and the Creek Indians could obtain powder 
and guns at Pensacola. They were to attack the settlers in Tennessee and 
Georgia, and drive them eastward of the mountains. Tecumtha was a 
great man, but he did not compre- 
hend the force of an advancing civil- 
ization. He had a brother, Elks-wa- 
ta-wa, who called himself a prophet, 
sent by the Great Spirit. Tecumtha 
made speeches, and the prophet and 
the British did all they could to stir 
up the Indians against the Americans. 

General William Henry Harrison 
was appointed Governor of Indiana, 
and built a fort at Terre Haute, 
which was named Fort Harrison. 
The Indians had a town of their own 
on the Wabash. General Harrison 
marched with nine hundred men ; 
but, remembering how other gener- 
als had fallen into traps, kept his vi- 
dettes always in advance, and guards 
on both flanks. He was so vigilant that the Indians, who knew of his ad- 
vance, said that he slept with his eyes open. The woods were thick with 
Indians. Tecumtha was in Georgia, trying to arouse the Creeks, and 




TECUMTHA. 




FORT HARRISON. 



146 



KUILDIXU THE NATION. 



[Chap. XI. 



Elks-wa-ta-wa was managing things. He sent a messenger to General 
Harrison asking for a parley. They would have a talk the next morning. 
The army went into camp in a beautiful grove at Tippecanoe. 

" Creep through the grass, tomahawk the sentinels, then rush upon 
the camp," said Elks-wa-ta-wa to the seven hundred warriors. 

It is four o'clock in the morning, November 7, 1811. Stephen Mars, 
one of General Harrison's sentinels, sees something in the grass. Crack ! 
goes his rifle, and an Indian leaps into the air. Then comes the war- 
whoop, a flashing of guns, and a rush upon the camp. In an instant 
General Harrison is in his saddle. At the north-west corner of the camp 
Captain Joe Davis falls mortally wounded. At the south-west corner 




I ii'i'i CANOE BATTL] GKOl ND. 



Captain Spencer is killed, and Lieutenant Warrick mortally wounded. 
The Indians arc attacking on all sides. 

-Hold vour ground; we will beal them !" shouts General Harrison. 

"Charge!" 

The soldiers rushed upon the Indians with a yell, driving them from 
their hiding-places; chasing them like deer through the woods. General 
Harrison pushed on to the prophet's town; but not an Indian was to be 
>e,ii all had (led. In a lew minutes the flames licked up every hut and 
wigwam, and all the corn which had been stored lor the winter. It was 
a defeat from which the Indians never recovered. 



1812.] 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



147 



England and France were still seizing American vessels. England 
had taken nine hundred and seventeen, and France five hundred and 
fifty-eight. The loss to Americans was reckoned at $70,000,000. 

The people of the United States were becoming very angry, but were 
divided in opinion. Some wanted to go to war with both England and 
France, others with England only ; and there were others who were 
opposed to going to war at all. 

"Why go to war with England," they asked, "when we have only 
twenty vessels in our navy against her one thousand ? You cannot cope 
with her on the ocean. She can burn our seaports, and ravage the coast 
from Maine to Georgia." 

" If honor demands a war 
with England, what opiate lulls 
that honor to sleep over the 
wrongs done us by France ?" 
asked Josiah Quincy, Senator 
from Massachusetts, one of the 
ablest men in Congress. 

" England," replied those 
who were eager for war, " is 
arrogant and insulting. She 
seizes our ships, and impresses 
our sailors. She is stirring up 
the Indians of the North-west 
to murder the settlers of Ohio 
and Indiana. To submit to 
such insolence and wrong is to 
humiliate ourselves. If we can- 
not meet her on the ocean we 
can capture Canada. There are less than four hundred thousand people 
in those provinces, against seven millions in the United States." 

" Weak as we are," said Henry Clay of Kentucky, " we can fight 
England and France both, if necessary, in a good cause — the cause of 
honor and independence." 

"In your zeal," shouted John Randolph of Virginia, in opposition, 
"to serve your French master you are ready to create a national debt by 
rushing into a wicked war with a fraternal people — fraternal in blood, 
religion, laws, arts, and literature." 

Most of the members of Congress from the Southern States were 
eager for war with England, but not with France. John Randolph had 




JOSIAH QUINCY. 



us 



liUILDLM; THE NATION. 



[Chap. XL 



something to say about what the effect of war would be on the slaves — 
that it would bring insurrection. 

"The negroes," he said, "arc rapidly gaining notions of freedom, 
destructive alike to their own happiness and the safety and interests of 
their masters. The night-bell never tolls for lire in Richmond that the 
frightened mother does not hug her infant more closely to her bosom, 
not knowing what may have happened." 

" Which shall we do," asked John C. Calhoun of South Carolina — 
"abandon or defend our commercial and maritime rights, and the per- 
sonal liberties of our citizens in exercising them \ These rights are 
attacked, and war is the only means of redress." 

The majority of Congress and of the people M'ere for war with Eng- 
land, but not with France. England was the chief aggressor, because she 
was mistress of the seas. The old feeling against her had not died out, 
and there was still a kindly feeling toward France for the help which she 
had given during the Revolution. There was a determination, let the 
issue be what it might, to fight for the rights of American sailors and 
for free commerce on the ocean. 

President Madison did not want to go to war, but he desired to be 
elected President a second time. His friends, who were eager for war, 
informed him that unless he went with the majority he could not be 
re-elected. With closed doors the bill proposing war was discussed. Ir 
was passed in secret session, and on June 19, 1812, President .Madison 

affixed his signature, ami issued 
a proclamation declaring war 
against Great Britain. 

The United States had been 
a nation just twenty-five years. 
The Constitution made the States 
a nation ; but it had as yet no 
background of history, illumi- 
nated by noble deeds, to tire the 
hearts of the people. In senti- 
ment the United States were not 
a nation. The people of the sev- 
eral States had no particular love 
lor the Union ; they had done 
nothing for it, and had little com. 
prehension of what it had done 
or could do for them. Hardship, 




W II.I.IAM 111 1.1 . 



1812. J 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



149 




G^A,^ o^ Hl^lC O 



STATES AND TERRITORIES IN THE SOUTH AND WEST — 1812 



trial, suffering, self-sacritice, performance of glorious deeds — these bind us 
to one another. Love of country, patriotism — the grand ideal which 
makes country above everything else — had not yet sprung up in the 
hearts of the people. 

President Madison had a weak Cabinet. He appointed incompetent 
men to responsible positions. William Hull was appointed Governor of 



L50 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XI. 




Michigan. There were 
not many people in the 
Territory — only about live 
hundred at Detroit, and 
a few hundred scattered 
along the shore of Lake 
Erie. The country all the 
way from Central Ohio to 
1 >rtn lit was a wilderness. 
At the time war was de- 
rlared General Hull was 
cutting a road from the 
present town of Fremont 
to Toledo. 

•• 1 [asten to Detroit. 
and await orders," was 
the word sent to him by 
the Secretary of War on 
the morning of the day on 
which war was declared. 
Why did not the Secretary 
inform him that it was to be 
declared '. It was a blun- 
der -the first brick that 
set many others tumbling 
in the wrong direction. 
"War has been declared" wrote the Secretary, lb' sent the first 



1812.] 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



151 



order by a special messenger; but this he put into the post-office. There 
were no railroads then, and it took two weeks for the letter to reach 
Cleveland ; and the postmaster there had to send it by a messenger to 
General Hull, who had reached Maumee River, and had put his baggage 
and the muster-roll of his troops on board the schooner Cuyahoga, which 
set sail for Detroit. But the vessel did not reach Detroit. 

Sir George Prevost was Governor of Canada. He was expecting war. 
The great North-western Fur Company of Canada was expecting it, and 
had wide-awake agents in New York, who sent a swift messenger to 
Canada with the news ; and General Proctor, who was opposite Detroit, 
heard that war had begun several days before the letter sent to Cleveland 
reached General Hull. The Cuyahoga sailed up Detroit River, when out 
came a British vessel from Fort Maiden and captured it. The British, 
having the start in the reception of the news, sent soldiers to Mackinaw, 
at the head of Lake Huron, and captured the United States soldiers 
there. 

Tecumtha was with the British. His time had come. Not the Indians 
alone, but the British also, were at war with the United States — and he 
fondly hoped the Americans would soon be pushed back south of the Ohio. 











4 = ^ 


W 




FORT DEARBORN — 1812. 

General Hull sent a messenger through the woods to Captain Heald, 
commanding Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, advising him to abandon the 
place. He had only sixty-six men. There were several women and chil- 
dren in the fort. When he attempted to leave the Indians fell upon 
him, killing the women and children, and more than thirty of the men. 



L52 



BUILDIXd THE NATION. 



[Chap. XI. 



General Hull had one thousand volunteers from Ohio. They knew 
nothing of military discipline. They did not like restraint. Their officers 
were of their own election. One whom they did not like they rode upon 
a rail; but they were eager to be led into Canada. General Hull crossed 
Detroit River, stayed a few days, but went hack again, waiting for Colonel 
Brush, who was on his way from Toledo with supplies. Colonel Brush 
was afraid that the Indians would fall upon him, and sent to General Hull 
for an escort. Major Van Horn started with two hundred men. General 




MALI \i..\ B Villi -GKOI M>. 



Proctor, seeing his opportunity, crossed the river, with Tecnmtha, from 
Fort Maiden, which is eighteen miles below Detroit, and Major Van Horn 
had to return to Detroit. 

Lieutenant-colonel Miller started with his regiment and two cannon. 
He reached a piece of oak woods at Maguaga, where he was attacked by 
over one hundred British nnder Major Mnir, and five hundred Indians un- 
der Tecnmtha and the chief- Walk-in-the-water, Lame Hand, and Split Log. 

Colonel Miller was a brave man. He formed his men, and opened fire 
with his cannon, "(rive them grape!'' he cried to the artillerymen. 



1812.] 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



153 



" Charge !" he shouted, and his men dashed upon the British, and then 
upon the Indians, driving them through the woods. Colonel Miller lost 
eighteen killed and fifty-seven wounded, but he won the battle. 

"Return to Detroit," was the strange, incomprehensible order which 
General Hull sent to Miller. He had opened the way to meet Colonel 
Brush, but now he was ordered back, and must obey. Why General Hull 
issued the order no one ever knew. 

General Brock, the Lieutenant-governor of Canada, arrived at Fort Mai- 
den. He was Proctor's superior, brave and energetic. He planted a bat- 
tery opposite Detroit, and opened fire upon the fort with eighteen-pounder 
cannon. General Hull seemed to lose all heart. The officers and soldiers 
had no confidence in him. He allowed General Brock to cross the river 
with his army, when he might have knocked the boats into kindling-wood 
with his cannon. Seven hundred British troops and seven hundred In- 
dians crossed at night, took breakfast, then marched toward the fort. The 
Americans were eager for battle. They had twenty-five cannon, one hun- 
dred thousand musket cartridges, and 
a strong fort. They numbered one 
thousand, and were ready to fight to 
the last. The cannon were charged 
with grape-shot. All was ready, 
when General Hull ordered a white 
flag to be raised, and sent an officer 
with a note to General Brock, offer- 
ing to surrender. The officers and 
soldiers beheld it in amazement. 
They knew not what to make of it. 
Duncan M* Arthur, who had explored 
in 1791 the Ohio country, with Na- 
thaniel Massie, was so vexed at the 
conduct of General Hull that he 
could not refrain from tears. Colo- 
nel Lewis Cass broke his sword. 
"The British never shall have it!" he indignantly exclaimed. 

Some of the soldiers were ready to shoot General Hull, who stood 
before them weak, trembling, and irresolute. 

The deed was done. Cannon, troops, supplies, and everything in the 
fort, with Colonel Brush's command at Toledo, were included in the sur- 
render. 

The war had begun in disgraceful humiliation. Instead of capturing 




DUNCAN M'ARTHDR. 



154 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XI. 



Canada, the north-western 
army was lost, and the whole 
country beyond the Ohio set- 
tlements was in possession of 
the British, and open to the 
ravages of the Indians. 

"Coward! traitor!" Those 
were the words hurled at Gen- 
eral Hull, who was tried by 
court-martial and sentenced to 
be shot; but President Madi- 
son was tender-hearted, and 
pardoned him, for he had done 
good service in the Revolution. 
Seventy years have passed since 
then, and we now see that he 
was not a traitor. During the 
Revolution he showed that he was not a coward. lie could not bear the 
thought of bloodshed — the possible tomahawking and scalping of the men, 
women, and children. Ho was weak, irresolute, and incompetent : and the 
result was disaster, humiliation, and disgrace. 

There was a second disaster at Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan), 




LEWIS (ASS. 




MONROE, FROM THJ BATTL1 -GROl M' 



1812.] 



HOW THERE CAME TO BE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



157 




SOLOMON VAN RENSSELAER. 



when one thousand men under 
General Winchester surrendered 
to the British general, Proctor, 
who allowed the Indians to 
tomahawk and scalp man} 7 of 
the prisoners. 

That was not the end of dis- 
aster. General Yan Rensselaer, 
commanding at Niagara, a true 
patriot and brave, was anxious to 
strike a blow which would wipe 
out the disgrace of Hull's sur- 
render. To do it he must cross 
the deep and foaming Niagara 
River, climb the steep banks on 
the Canada side in the darkness 
of night, gain a foothold, and 
defeat the British on their own 

ground. His soldiers were eager for the enterprise. He had only thir- 
teen boats, and those might be swamped in the whirlpools and eddies. 

Colonel Solomon Van Rensse- 
laer commanded the militia, 

and Lieutenant-colonel Wintield 

Scott the regulars. 

It was the 13th of October, 

and a terrible storm was raging; 

but at midnight six hundred men 

crept silently down the steep 

bank on the American side, but 

the boats could carry only half. 

The three hundred embarked. 

In ten minutes they were on the 

rocks at the foot of the bluff on 

the Canadian side. The British 

sentinels saw them, and began 

to fire. Then the cannon began 

to thunder; but the Americans 

climbed the bank, and the battle 

begun. Colonel Van Rensselaer, 

Captain John E. Wool, and sev- 




.nill.s BRANT. 



158 BUILDING THE NATION. < ii.u».XI. 

eral other officers were wounded, but they drove the British. General 
Brock, who commanded them, fell mortally wounded ; but General 
Sheafe rallied them, and re-enforcements came — John Brant, a young 
Indian chief, with his face painted and plumes in his cap. lie was a 
son of John Brant, who had fought for the British during the involu- 
tion. He commanded several hundred Indians, who came down, with a 
yell, through the woods. Xow the British outnumbered the Americans 
two to one. 

The Americans were fighting bravely, but must have help or be de- 
feated. On the New York shore were more than one thousand militia, 
and General Van Rensselaer ordered them to cross; but they refused to go, 
nor had he any authority to compel them. Why? Because in 17S7 the 
people of the United States had adopted a written Constitution, and that 
Constitution had put it forever beyond the power of the President to call 
upon the militia to invade a foreign country. 

If the British were to set foot on American soil the militia would fight 
them, but they would not cross the river and invade Canada; and so it 
came about that all who had crossed were obliged to surrender to the 
British. It was a disheartening disaster, but gave the country a new- 
view of the meaning and power of the Constitution, and of the wisdom 
of the men who had framed it. 

General Smyth, of Virginia, succeeded General Van Rensselaer. He- 
was weak, vain, pompous, and issued ridiculous proclamations setting forth 
the great things he intended to do; but he did almost nothing, and was 
laughed at alike by the British and by his own countrymen. 

< >n the land the year began and ended in disaster. 



1812.] 



VICTORIES ON THE SEA. 



159 



CHAPTER XII. 



VICTORIES ON THE SEA. 

1\HE United States had twenty vessels — the largest carrying forty-four 
• guns. Great Britain had one thousand and sixty vessels in her navy, 
some of them carrying one hundred and twenty guns. The newspapers 
of London ridiculed the navy of the United States, and said that the 
ships were pine-board boxes, while the British vessels were built of Eng- 
lish oak. On the ocean war began, as on the land, with disaster to the 
United States. The brig Nautilus, of fourteen guns, sailed from New 
York, and the next day was captured by the British frigate Shannon. 
The United States now had 
nineteen vessels, England one 
thousand and sixty -one, and 
came very near adding the 
Constitution to her list. 

It was off Nantucket, at 
sunrise on a summer's morn- 
ing, not a breath ruffling the 
ocean, when Captain Isaac Hull 
discovered a British fleet — 
eleven ships in all. lie could 
not tight them ; he must creep 
away — but how? 

" Down with the boats !" 
was his order; and the sailors, 
leaping into the boats, rowed 
ahead, with ropes running out 
from beneath the bowsprit. 

The Shannon was the nearest British ship. Her sides flamed, her 
guns roared, but the shot fell harmlessly into the sea. 




Isaac HULL. 



160 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XII. 

"How deep is the water?" asked Captain Hull. 

" Twenty fathoms," answered the sailing-master. 

"Out with the kedge-anchor!" A boat carries an anchor with a rope 
attached half a mile ahead, drops it into the sea, and then the sailors on 
the ( institution go round the windlass upon the run. Commodore Broke 
discovers that the Constitution is surging ahead, and signals the other 
ships to send their boats to help tow the Shannon. IJc sends out his 
kedge-anchor. Then comes a little breeze, filling the sails of all the ves- 
sels ; but it dies away, and the sea is smooth; and now all through the 
day. through the night, the race goes on — the Shannon and Ouerriere 
pulling with all their might. 

The master-mechanic, when he laid the keel of the Constitution • the 
wood-choppers of Allenstown, on the banks of the Merrimac, in New 
Hampshire, where they felled the giant oaks; the carpenters who hewed 
the timbers, little thought how glorious would be the history of the ( ''in- 
stitution. This was its beginning — a race with eleven vessels trying to 
catch her — a hare with the hounds upon her track. Brave men stand 
upon her deck. Every pulse beats high. The shot from the Shannon 
do not reach them. They are holding their own. Three cheers ring out 
as they whirl the windlass and pull at the oars. All day, all night, till 
four o'clock in the afternoon of the second day, the race goes on, when 
the Shannon, instead of being within cannon-shot, is four miles astern. 
Dark clouds sweep up in the western sky. 

"In with the studding-sails! Down with the top-gallants!" This the 
order; and when, the storm bursts the Constitution, trim and taut, but 
under a great white cloud of canvas, sweeps away, and the hounds give 
np the chase. 

" Free trade and suitors' rights."' 

That was the motto which Captain Porter put upon the flag of the 
Essex as he sailed out of the harbor of New York. On August 13 the 
sailors at the mast-head on the lookout discovered a vessel, which came 
down upon the Essex with all sail set. It was the Alert, carrying twenty 
guns, which poured a broadside into the Essex ; but the next moment 
there was such a crashing of timbers around them that the British sailors 
lied in terror to find shelter in the hold, and the captain of the Alert, 
seeing what terrible havoc was going on, pulled down his flag. 

The Constitution was off Newfoundland. 

"Sail hoi" 

The sailors at the mast-head shouted it. There it was — a white speck 
far away. 



v > 1 ' """'" - '-'-, ft 




1812.] 



VICTORIES ON THE SEA. 



163 




" The Guerriere /" shout the sailors on the vessel's approach. Captain 
Hull is delighted. The Constitution and Guerriere each carry forty-four 
guns. Captain Hull and Captain Dacres, commanding the Guerriere, are 
old acquaintances. Before the 
war began they drank a glass 
of wine together. 

" If there should be war 
you must take care of the 
Guerriere, if I should come 
across her in the Constitu- 
tion" said Captain Hull. 

" I'll bet you any amount 
you please that you will be 
whipped," said Dacres. 

" I do not care to bet mon- 
ey — let it be a hat." 

"All right." 

The two friends parted, but 
thus again to meet, each in 
the service of his country : one 
the representative of the na- 
tion which proudly asserts superiority as mistress of the seas — a nation 
whose fleets have annihilated the fleets of France and Spain ; the other 
the representative of a nation without a history — which has but nineteen 
vessels in its navy — which never yet has exhibited its pluck or prowess 
in warfare with a civilized nation. 

The Guerriere, as if to assert her superiority, flings out a flag from 
each top-mast. When far away her guns flash, but the balls fall short. 

" Double-shot the guns !" Captain Hull gives the order, and the sailors 
ram home the thirty-two-pound balls, with a charge of grape-shot, in each 
cannon. 

The cannon of the Guerriere open once more. 

"Not a cannon is to be fired till I give the word," is Captain Hull's 
order. 

The shot of the Guerriere is tearing into the Constitution. 

"May we not open tire?" Lieutenant Morris asks. 

" Not yet." 

Another broadside crashes into the timbers of the Constitution. The 
sailors are impatient. It is hard to stand silent and motionless by the 
double-shotted cannon, with the splinters flying, the balls tearing every- 



JAMES DACRES. 



164 BUILDING THE NATION. [CHAP. XII. 

tiling to pieces around them, and not be allowed to fire. Captain Hull 
stands upon the quarter -deck, calmly waiting till every gun will bear. 
It is the fashion of the times to wear tight pantaloons, and his are very 
tight. 

" Now, boys, jam it into them !" Every sailor hears the order 
shouted at the top of his voice. lie has been cool and collected, but 
now he is on fire. In the energy and excitement of the moment the 
captain bends low, and the tight-fitting pantaloons split from waistband 
to knee. 

•'Hull her! Hull her!" Lieutenant Morris shouts it; and the sailors 
— comprehending the play upon words, that they are to do to the 
Guerriere what their captain has done to his pantaloons — spring to their 
work with a hurrah ! keeping up a continual roar of thunder from the 
double-shotted guns. 

Twenty minutes, and the Guerriere is a helpless wreck — every mast 
gone, gaping rents in her sides, her cannon silent. 

Lieutenant Read goea on board. 

" Captain Hull's compliments, and he wishes to know if you have 
struck your flag ?" 

" Well, as my mizzen and main masts are gone, we may say, upon the 
whole, that we have," said Captain Dacres. 

" I will not take your sword," said Captain Hull, when Captain Dacres 
stood before him, " but I will trouble you for that hat." 

The Guerriere was filling with water, and was such a wreck that Cap- 
tain Hull, after tenderly caring for the wounded and removing the nun, 
set her on fire. When the fire reached the magazine a great wave of 
flame shot into the air, lifting remains of masts, spars, cannon, anchors, 
rope*, and chains, which rained down into the sea, and all that was left 
of the Guerriere disappeared forever. 

What commotion there was in Boston, August 30, when the Consti- 
tution sailed into the harbor! The shopkeepers putting up their shutters; 
the people thronging from their houses down to the wharves; cannon 
thundering a salute; ladies waving handkerchiefs from the windows; 
men and boys shouting themselves hoarse. It was not only that the 
Guerriere had been annihilated, but England was no longer to have things 
all her own way on the sea — no longer to claim undisputed ownership of 
the ocean. It was the beginning of the vindication of right and justice 
for the people of the United States and, through them, for the rest of 
mankind. Everywhere there were rejoicings — dinners to Captain Hull 
and his officers — six hundred people sitting down to a grand banquet in 



1812.] 



VICTORIES ON THE SEA. 



L67 



Boston. That city, and also New York, presented him with swords and 
snuffboxes. Rustic poets set themselves to writing songs: 

" Isaac did so maul and rake her, 
That the decks of Captain Dacre 
Were in such a woful pickle 
As if Death, with scythe and sickle, 
With his sling or with his shaft, 
Had cut his harvest fore and aft ; 
Thus, in thirty minutes, ended 
Mischief that could not be mended ; 
Masts and yards and ship descended 
All to David Jones's locker — 
Such a ship in such a pucker !" — Old Song. 

The sloop-of-war Wasp, commanded by Captain Jones, sailed from Del- 
aware Bay in October, steering south. On the 17th the sailor at the mast- 
head on the lookout sighted several vessels. Six of them were merchant- 
men ; but each carried sixteen or 
eighteen guns. One was the Frolic, 
a war -ship, which carried twenty 
guns. The Wasp carried eighteen. 
The merchant-ships kept on their 
course, while the Frolic took in sail, 
to let the Wasp know she w r as ready 
to fight. There had been a storm, 
and the sea was running high, but 
the sky was clear. Captain Jones 
sees that with the rolling of the 
ship the shot will fly wild unless 
the gunners take good aim. 

" Fire when the ship is going 
down into the trough of the sea !" 
are his instructions. 

That will send the shot plump 
into the sides of the Frolic. 
The battle begins. The shot from the cannon of the Wasp tears 
through the sides of the Frolic. While the shot from- the Frolic cut the 
rigging of the Wasp, down come the main-top-gallant and main-top-mast, 
entangling the rigging. The vessels fall foul of each other, the bowsprit 
of the Frolic running across the quarter-deck of the Wasp. The men of 
the Wasp see their opportunity, fire once more, and leap on board the 
Frolic, finding cannon dismounted, masts, bulwarks, and all the wood- 




JACOB JONKS. 



168 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



Chap. XII. 



work in splinters. Of the one hundred and eight men on board ninety- 
two had been killed and wounded. 
Lieutenant Biddle hauls down the 
flag of the Frolic. Though the loss 
has been so terrible on the Frolic, 
the Wasp has had only Ave killed, 
and as many wounded — ten in all. 
The victory had been won ; but the 
Poictiers, with seventy -four guns, 
made her appearance, and Captain 
Jones was obliged to give up his 
prize and pull down his own flag. 

There was great rejoicing in the 
United States when it was known 
that the Wasp had captured a su- 
perior vessel. Newsboys hawked 
through the streets a picture of a 
wasp thrusting its sting into John 
Bull; and in bar-rooms and grog- 




A WASP ON A FKULIC. 



shops sailors and landsmen sung the doggerel song : 

"A Wasp took a Frolic and met Johnny Bull, 
Who always fights best when his belly is full. , 

The Wasp thought him hungry by his mouth open wide, 
So, his belly to fill, put a sting in his side." 

Captain Stephen Decatur, commanding the United States, fell in with 
the Macedonian. Each vessel carried forty -four guns. As the ships 
approached each other the American sailors heard great cheering on 
board the Macedonian — the English were going to whip the Yankees ! 

The battle began, and for half an hour there was such a cloud of 
smoke rolling up from the United States that Captain Carden, of the 
Macedonian^ thought she was on fire. During the time the mizzen-mast 
of the Macedonian falls, the main-yard is cut to pieces, the main and fore 
top-masts tumble to the deck, the foremast is tottering, just ready to fall, 
the bowsprit is splintered, and the rigging is cut into shreds. Suddenly 
the cannon of the United States become silent, and the British sailors 
seeing her sheer off, swing their hats and give a cheer. They have beat- 
en her, and she is trying to escape ? Not quite. The man who fought 
the Algerines is only wearing his ship to take a new position. He comes 
astern the Macedonian ; in a minute he will rake her from stem to stern. 



1812.] 



VICTOKIES ON THE SEA. 



lUtf 



Captain Carden sees that he is powerless, and the flag of the Macedonian 
comes down, while cheer upon cheer rolls up from the United States. In 
half an hour the Macedonian has become a wreck, while the United 
States has suffered very little. 

On December 4, 1812, the United States sails into the haibor of New 
London, and the Macedonian into Newport. Greater than ever the re- 
joicing in America. Votes of thanks, dinners, swords were given to De- 
catur, and rhymsters rehearsed his exploits : 

" Bold Carden thought he had us tight ; 

Just so did Dacres, too, sirs ; 
But brave Decatur put him right 

With Yankee-doodle-doo, sirs. 
They thought they saw our ship in flame, 

Which made them all huzza, sirs ; 
But when the second broadside came 

It made them hold their jaws, sirs." 

One of the fine new frigates of the English navy, the Java, carrying 
thirty-eight guns (Captain Lambert), was off the coast of Brazil, with the 
Governor-general of India and more than one hundred officers of the East 
India Service on board, bound for Calcutta. Governor Hyslop and his 




IiAINBKIDGE S MEDAL. 



suite, while they sipped their wine at dinner, December 26, little thought 

that it was the last time they would drink the health of the King on board. 

" Sail ho !" They left their wine to take a look at the vessel bearing 

down upon them with the Stars and Stripes at the mast-head. 

It was the Constitution, Captain Bainbridge. At two o'clock the bat- 
fi* 



170 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XIL 

tie began, a shot from the Java breaking to pieces the wheel of the Con- 
stitution ; but Captain Bainbridge, soon fixing a gearing to work the 
helm, poured in a terrible fire, stood away, fixed up things, came back, laid 
the Constitution along-side, shooting away all three of the Java's masts, 
dismounting her guns, and making terrible slaughter, killing and wound- 
ing more than two hundred, while on her own deck there were only nine 
killed and twenty-one wounded. 

It was very bitter, but the Java was a helpless wreck. Captain Lam- 
bert could fight no lunger. Down came her flag, and the Governor-gen- 
eral of India and all his officers were prisoners of war. So badly cut to 
pieces was the Java, that Captain Bainbridge, after removing the wounded 
and the prisoners, set her on fire. 

Into the harbor of Boston proudly sailed the Constitution, the cannon 
on shore thundering a salute. 

"Old !n>ll^i(U's ,, the people called her. 

Great was the consternation in England, for, with successive losses, 
came the conviction that a nation was rising on the other side of the 
Atlantic which was to dispute her supremacy of the seas. 



1813.] 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



171 



CHAPTER XIII. 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WiE. 

GENERAL WINCHESTER, with one thousand troops from Ohio, 
was at Frenchtown, now Monroe, in Michigan. It was a place of 
half a dozen log cabins. Peter Navarre lived in one, and Jacques Lasalle in 
another. They were French Canadians. " You are going to be attacked," 
said Peter to General Winchester. He sided with the Americans, and 
had been out on a scout. 

" Ha ! ha ! ha !" laughed Jacques ; " that is a mistake. Proctor is at 

Maiden, and has no idea of 
attacking you," he said. 

lie was in the pay of Proc- 
tor, and knew that eleven hun- 
dred British and Indians were 
preparing to cross Detroit River 
on the ice and attack the Amer- 
icans. 

General Winchester did 
not believe that Proctor would 
make an attack, and rested in 
security; but during the night 
of January 21, 1813, Proctor 
and Tecumtha, with eleven 
hundred men and five cannon, 
crossed npon the ice and stole silently upon the Americans. 

Just before daybreak came the crack of a rifle fired by one of the 
sentinels, who heard the tramping of feet. The next moment the Indians 
were yelling the war-whoop, and cannon-shot crashed into the houses 
where the Americans were sleeping. 

General Winchester and Colonel Lewis were soon captured. 
The soldiers, commanded by Colonel Wells and M'Clanahan, became 
panic-stricken and fled across the river Rasin, but only to fall into the 




LASALLE S HOUSE. 



172 



HL'ILDIXG THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIIL 



hands of the Indians, who, having captured them, buried their hatchets in 
their skulls and took their scalps. General Proctor had offered a reward 
for every American scalp, and in consequence more than one hundred 
were inhumanly massacred after surrendering. 

Although so many of the soldiers had fled, the regiments under Major 
Madison and Major Graves stood their ground. They were in a garden, 
sheltered by a fence ; and although Proctor had live cannon and the Amer- 
icans no artillery, and were 
greatly outnumbered, they kept 
the British and Indians at bay, 
and fought so bravely that 
Proctor despaired of capturing 
them. 

He was mean, cruel, blood- 
thirsty, and destitute of honor. 
He allowed the Indians to strip 
Winchester of nearly all his 
clothes, and then told him he 
must sign an order command- 
ing Madison and Graves to sur- 
render. " The Americans will 
all be massacred if they do 
not surrender. Private property will be respected, and the wounded will 
be tenderly cared for," he said. 

General Winchester did not know that Proctor had in reality been 
defeated, and signed the order. An officer with a white flag carried it 
to Madison and Graves. They obeyed it, and the soldiers laid down 
their arms. Then the massacre began, the Indians tomahawking and 
scalping the wounded. Proctor made no effort to stop it. He was so 
inhuman and treacherous that Tecumtha looked down upon him with 
scorn. But Sir George Prevost, Governor of Canada, was so pleased with 
what Proctor had accomplished that he made him a general. 

So the year 1813 began upon the land with disaster to the Americans; 
but American sailors were still winning victories. 

The brig Hornet, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, February 24 
fell in with the British brig Peacock. The vessels were of equal size, each 
carrying twenty guns; but so destructive was the lire of the Hornet, that 
in fifteen minutes the Peacock was a complete wreck — the main-mast gone, 
rigging cut to pieces, and water pouring into her hold. Down came her 
flag, and up went a signal of distress. The crew of the Hornet manned 




WINCHESTER S llKAD-QUARTERS. 



1813.] 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



173 



their boats, and began to take the men from the Peacock ; but suddenly 
she went down, carrying thirteen of her own crew and three Americans. 




^yriSH 



(Ci^'W 




^'<y 



^7S 






AMERICANS 

fUA/CHEOIV FENCE 



WEIIS AND M'CLANANAN 




FRENCHTOWN 



MOVEMENTS AT FRENCHTOWN. 



The American sailors had defeated the British, and now divided their 
clothing with them. 

Humanity and kindness of heart on the deck of the Hornet ; toma- 
hawking and scalping on the banks of the river Basin. The world noted 
the difference. 



174 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chai-. XIII. 



While the Hornet was sending the Peacock to the bottom of the sea 
the British troops in Canada crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice and capt- 
ured and plundered the village of Ogdensbnrg; but when spring opened 




vnKK (Now TORONTO). 

the Americans, with the fleet under Commodore Chauncey, crossed Lake 
Ontario to attack York, now Toronto. 

General Zebulon Pike led the Americans. The British, seeing that 
they could not hold the place, laid a train of five hundred kegs of powder 
to blow up one of the forts. The soldier who was to fire it touched it off 
too soon, when it exploded, sending timbers, cannon, shot, and shells into 
the air. Forty British and fifty- 
eight Americans were killed. One 
of the Americans was General Pike, 
who was crushed by a falling timber, 
and after whom many counties and 
towns in the Western States have 
since been named. 

Who should command the army of 
the North-wot? Who but the man 
who had won the victory at Tippe- 
canoe — General William Henry Har- 
rison ? The troops, the country, be- 
lieved in him. lie built a fort eight 
miles up the Maumee River from 
Toledo, and named it Fort Meigs. 

He had only two regiments. 
General Armstrong, Secretary of 

War, thought that he could manage the campaign from Washington, ana 
had <riven General Harrison less than half the troops he needed. 




1813. J 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



175 



General Proctor saw his opportunity, lie would attack the half-fin- 
ished fort and capture it before any re-enforcements could reach Har- 
rison. 

"Summon all the Indians; we will drive the Americans beyond the 
Ohio, and you shall have Michigan 
for your territory forever," he said 
to Tecumtha. 

The Indians came, fifteen hun- 
dred in number, to murder and 
scalp the Big Knives, as they called 
the American settlers. 

General Proctor sailed from Am- 
herstburg, landed, planted his can- 
non, and for five days rained solid 
shot and shell upon the fort. When 
General Harrison saw Proctor plac- 
ing his cannon he set his soldiers to 
digging ditches and throwing up an 
embankment, called a traverse, be- 
hind which the soldiers could lie in 
safety. He had only three cannon 
and very few balls. 

" A gill of rum for every ball you can pick up," he said ; and the sol- 
diers watched where the balls ploughed into the ground, dug them out, so 
many of them that the sutler had to measure out more than two thousand 
gills. Captain Gratiot, commanding the artillery, sent the balls back to 
Proctor as General Harrison's compliments. 

Proctor sent a flag summoning Harrison to surrender ; but the man 

who had won the battle of 
Tippecanoe had no idea of 
pulling down the flag while 
there was a soldier to de- 
fend it. 

General Clay was on 
his way to the fort, de- 
scending the Maumee with 
eight hundred men in 
boats. General Proctor 
had divided his army, having part on the west and part on the east side 
of the river. General Harrison sent word • to General Clay to land part 




WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 




MORTAR BATTERY 



FORT MEIGS. 



176 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. Xlli. 



of his troops on the north side, rush upon Proctor's batteries, spike the 
gnns, then retreat, cross the river, and gain the fort. The rest of Clay's 
soldiers were to land on the south side and spike the guns there. 

Colonel Dudley commanded the men who were to land on the west 
side. The river was rising when the boats swept up to the bank, and the 
troops landed under the willows and maples, which were just putting out 
their young leaves, on the 3d of May. They marched through the woods 
a mile and a half. They could hear the booming of Proctor's eighteen- 
pounders, which had begun to play upon the fort. The Indians, strange to 
say, had not discovered the Americans. 

"Give the war-whoop," whispered Dudley. The Kentuckians could 

yell as well as the 
f Indians. The troops 
rushed forward, fell 
upon the British, 
spiked the cannon, 
and pulled down the 
British flag. Gen- 
eral Harrison and 
the soldiers in the 
fort beheld it, swung 
their hats, and gave 
a hurrah. 

Great events hang 
on little things; a 
slight mistake upsets 
the best -laid plans. 
Colonel Dudley had 
not informed his officers that as soon as the guns were spiked they were 
to retreat. In a few moments more than one thousand Indians were upon 
them, and more than two-thirds of his force were captured, the Indians 
splitting open their skulls. General Proctor did not attempt to stop them. 
Tecumtha was lighting the Americans, but he was too honorable to see 
men slaughtered in cold blood who had surrendered. 

"Why don't you stop the killing?" he shouted to Proctor. 
" I cannot control your warriors." 

" Go put on petticoats — you are no general," said Tecumtha. 
The rest of Clay's troops landed on the east bank. General Harrison 
sent out three hundred and fifty men from the fort, who joined Clay, 
spiked the British cannon, and then all marched into the fort. 




SIEGE OF PORT MEIGS. 



1813.] 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



177 



Through Dudley's disobedience of orders eighty Americans had been 
killed, two hundred and seventy wounded, and four hundred and seventy 
captured. Proctor had lost one hundred, his cannon were spiked, and the 
troops in the fort had been re-enforced. No use for him now to think of 
capturing the fort. He left his spiked cannon and went back to Amherst* 
burg. 

There was fighting at Niagara. On May 27 General Dearborn crossed 
into Canada and captured Fort Niagara. This movement compelled the 
British to evacuate all the other forts between Lake Ontario and Lake 
Erie. 

Sir George Prevost, to retaliate, sailed, with six war-vessels command- 
ed by Sir James Yeo, and twelve hundred men, from Kingston across 
Ontario, to attack Sackett's Harbor. 

" The British are coming !" was the word which horsemen shouted as 
they rode through the country around Sackett's Harbor; and the farmers 




sackett's harbor 181-1. 



seized their guns and hastened to defend it. General Brown commanded 
them. 

On May 28 the British fleet appeared — six vessels, carrying one him. 
dred and two cannon. General Brown had only one cannon — a thirty- 
two-pounder. 

The British troops, in their boats, came sweeping around Horse Island. 
Colonel Mills and four hundred Americans were drawn up on the shore; 
but Colonel Mills was killed at the first fire, and the troops (who never 
before had been in battle) fled. Colonel Backus, with two hundred and 
fifty men, stood their ground; and Colonel McNitt succeeded in rallying 



178 



I'.riLDIXCi THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIIL 



3F 



-T-- 



" ^BATlO N n 

SACKETT'S HARBOR 
4 May 1813 > 




one hundred of the fugitives. Colonel Backus was killed; but his troops 
took shelter in their log barracks, and kept up a galling fire upon the 
British. 

A bright thought came to General Brown. 

"Ride," he said to an officer, "and tell the men who have run away 
that we are winning the battle, and now is the time for them to have 
part of the glory." 

The officer rode down to the frightened men, who took heart once 
more. General Brown leads them round to take the British in the rear. 
Sir George Prevost is standing on a stump, and sees a body of men 

sweeping down upon his flank. 

" Come on, boys, the day is 
ours !" shouts a British captain. 

An American drummer -boy 
throws down his drum and picks 
up a gun. 

" Not yet," he shouts, firing and 
killing the officer. 

The British retreat, become 
panic-stricken, and rush pell-mell 
to their boats. Sir George Prevost 
goes back to Kingston, much morti- 
fied over his failure. 

From the beginning of the war 
the British frigate Shannon had 
been cruising off the coast of New 
England. It was one of the vessels 
that tried to capture the Constitu- 




te OB BROWN. 



1813. J SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 179 

tion. Captain Broke, commanding the Shannon, was brave and ener- 
getic; his crew under strict discipline, every day working the guns as if 
in action. 

In Boston harbor was the American frigate Chesapeake, which had 
been out on a cruise and captured several British merchant-ships. The 
sailors were entitled to their portion of prize-money, but were not paid as 
they ought to have been. They said that they were being cheated. 

Captain Lawrence, who had sunk the Peacock, was appointed to com- 
mand the Chesapeake. When he went on board he found everything in 
confusion — few officers, the crew undisciplined, and just ready to rise in 
mutiny. The boatswain was a Portuguese — a villain; and the crew alto- 
gether seem to have been a bad lot. A fishing-boat brought a letter to 
Captain Lawrence. It was from Captain Broke challenging the Chesa- 
peake to fight the Shannon, which Captain Lawrence very unwisely accept- 
ed: for the Shannon carried fifty-two guns, and the crew were disciplined; 
while the Chesapeake carried but forty-eight guns, and the crew, during 
the weeks the vessel had been in the harbor, had been rollicking in grog- 
shops. But if Captain Lawrence did not go out and fight would not the 
people think him a coward? Some of his sailors never had been on a 
war- vessel, and did not know how to work the guns; but he accepted the 
challenge, and sailed out from Boston to engage the Shannon. Many of 
the sailors had bottles of rum in their pockets, and drank so much that 
when the vessels were near enough to begin the fight they were so 
intoxicated that they could not stand. 

"Free trade and sailors' rights'''' was the motto which Captain Law- 
rence inscribed on his flag. He thought that it would arouse the en- 
thusiasm of his men; but it did not. They were sullen over the thought 
that the government had not paid them their dues. It was four o'clock 
in the afternoon when the light began, but it was over in fifteen minutes. 
The Shannon, from the outset had it all her own way. Captain Law- 
rence was mortally wounded. " Don't give up the ship !" he said as he 
fell. They were his last words. Nearly all his officers were killed or 
wounded. The Shannon ran along-side, and the British leaped on board, 
pulled down the flag, and sailed, with the Chesapeake, to Halifax, w T here 
there was great rejoicing. 

When the news of the capture reached England London went wild 
with excitement. The Yankees, who had been sweeping all before them 
on the ocean, had at last been beaten ! England was still mistress of 
the seas. 

Fort Stephenson was situated on the Sandusky River, in Ohio. It is 



180 



BUILl)l\<; THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIII. 



now Fremont. The fort was built of oak logs sixteen feet long, set in 
the ground, sharpened at the top, with block-houses at the comers. Out- 
side the fort was a ditch eight feet deep. 
It was garrisoned by one hundred and sixty 
men, under Major Croghan, who had only 
one cannon — an old iron six-pounder. 

General Proctor, having been foiled at 
Fort Meigs, determined to capture it. Gen 
eral Harrison learned what Proctor intended 
to do, and sent a messenger with a letter to 
Major Croghan. 




VIEW AT FREMONT. 



" Destroy the fort and the stores, and retreat, provided you can do so 
in season," he wrote. 

The Indians were swarming through the woods; but Major Croghan 
read the letter, and sent the carrier back with this reply : 

"It is too late to retreat. We have determined to maintain the place, 
and, by Heaven, we will." 

The man who wrote that was only twenty-one, and he had only one 
hundred and sixty men and one cannon, against four thousand British and 
Indians, led by Proctor and Teeumtha. 

Proctor sailed into Sandusky River with his gun- boats, landed and 
planted his cannon, and sent Colonel Elliott with a white flag to the fort. 
Lieutenant Shiff went out to meet him. 

"I demand the surrender of the fort, to save the shedding of blood*' 



1813.] 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



181 



" We shall defend it to the last." 

"Our success is certain. Look at the immense number of Indians 
which we have. We shall not be able to restrain them from massacre." 

" When you take the fort there 
will be no Americans left to mas- 
sacre." 

An Indian sprung out of the 
bushes and attempted to snatch Lieu- 
tenant Skiff's sword ; but Shiff in- 
stantly drew it to cut him down. 

" Come in, and we will blow 
them to pieces !" shouted Croghan 
from the fort. Elliott went back to | 
Proctor, and then six cannon on c 
shore and the gun-boats opened fire. i 

"Put the six -pounder in the 
block-house on the north side; point I 
it so it will sweep the ditch. Load 
it to the muzzle," said Croghan ; and 
the soldier filled it with musket- 
balls, bits of old iron, and spikes. 
Major Croghan thought the British 
would certainly attempt to storm the fort at the north-west comer. 

All through the day, through the night, through the next day till four 
o'clock in the afternoon, Proctor's cannon thundered, the balls crashing 
through the oak logs, but doing little harm to the Americans. The In- 
dians were restless; they had taken no scalps; they wanted to get into the 
fort to begin their bloody work. A thunder-storm was rising in the west, 
dark clouds sweeping up the sky. Proctor determined to make an assault 
at the north-west corner and on the south side at the same time. 

" Fire as fast as yon can," he said to the artillerymen ; and the can- 
non blazed faster than ever, making a great white cloud, which the wind 
swept upon the fort. 

" There they come !" A soldier shouted it ; and Major Croghan be- 
held through the smoke a column of red-coated soldiers not one hundred 
feet distant. They leap into the ditch, led by Colonel Short. 

" Cut the pickets away ; show the Yankees no quarter !" he shouts. 
Never again will his lips utter an order. The loop-holes of the fort blaze; 
he falls headlong dead. The six-pounder hurls its balls and spikes along 
the ditch, mowing a path its entire length. 




MAJOR CROGHAN. 



182 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIII. 



" In with the balls and spikes !" shouts Major Croghan ; and in an 
instant it is filled again to the muzzle, and the missiles Bent into the strug- 
gling British. Five minutes, and it is over — the living fleeing to escape 
the bullets of the riflemen. In the ditch lie one hundred and twenty 
dead and wounded, while in the fort only one has been killed. 




The storm bursts — lightning flashing and thunder rolling. Night 
comes. In the darkness Proctor steals on board his boats. When morn- 
ing dawns the ships are far out on the lake, and not an Indian is to be 
seen. Never again will a British soldier set foot in Ohio or Michigan 
except as a prisoner. 

Admiral Cochrane commanded the British fleets along the Atlantic 
coast. "Destroy the coast, and ravage the country," was the order he 
issued to the captains of the ships. Admiral Hardy was charged to destroy 
Stonington, Connecticut, and appeared off the harbor with the RamiUies, 
seventy-four guns; Pactolus, forty-four guns; Despatch, twenty-two gnns ; 
and the Terror, a bomb-ship. At live o'clock on the afternoon of August 
9, 1813, he sent a boat with a^ white flag on shore, with this message to 
the " select-men :" 

" The inhabitants can have one hour in which to leave the town." 



1813.] 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



183 




l#£fi 



>*/ 



STONINGTON FLAG. 



Lieutenant Honsrh was 



What had the people of Stonington done that their town must be 
burnt % Nothing. It was barbarous war- 
fare. The select-men were men of pluck. 

"If our houses are to be burnt we shall 
tight till the last extremity," was the answer 
sent to Admiral Hardy. 

Along the roads streamed the old men, 
the women, and children — hastening away 
from the town with what they could carry ; 
while the young men remained to fight. 
Upon a hill overlooking the harbor were two 
old eighteen-pounder cannons, two six-pound- 
ers, and one four-pounder; but they had only 
a few pounds of powder, and not many balls, 
commander. 

The sea was calm, and as there was no wind Admiral Hardy could 
not get near enough to use his cannon; but just at sunset each ship low- 
ered its boats, which towed the bomb-vessel close in shore, and the Terror 
began to throw shells and rockets among the houses. 

The Stonington men saw that 
if they could get one of the can- 
non out upon a point of land 
they could make it uncomforta- 
ble for the bomb - ship, and in 
the darkness dragged one of the 
eighteen-ponnders along the peb- 
bled 1 teach. They threw up a 
breastwork, planted the cannon, 
rammed in two balls, and sent 
them crashing into the British 
boats. So damaging was the lire 
that the British made all haste 
to get away. 

Morning dawned, and with 
the freshening breeze the De- 
spatch came sailing in, opening 
her broadsides upon the men 
managing the old cannon. Jeremiah Holmes was chief manager. He had 
been a prisoner on board a British man-of-war, and knew how to manage 
the gun. He sighted it, and sent the shot plump into the side of the 




JKRKMIAII HOr.MKS. 



184 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIII. 



Despatch, and kept up the fight till he had used up his last cartridge; 
then drove a spike into the vent-hole, and went up to the breastwork on 
the hill, where the shot from all of Admiral Hardy's vessels were flying 
thick and fast. 

-Had we not better surrender ?" asked a faint-hearted citizen. 
"No! The Stars and Stripes never shall come down while I live!" 
shouted Holmes; and when the wind died in the calm summer evening, 
and the flag hung limp against the staff, he stood on the breastwork and 
held it out with the point of his bayonet, that the British might see that 
it was still there. Three shot passed through Avhile he was thus hold- 
ing it. More powder — six kegs had been obtained; and the Stonington 
men during the night drew the old cannon down on the point of land to 
Mr. Cobb's blacksmith shop, got the spike out, drew it back again, and 
then Jeremiah Holmes sent the solid shot, one after another, into the hull 
of the Despatch, doing such damage that the captain was obliged to cut 
his cables and get beyond reach. The Ramillies and Pactolus sailed in 
and opened a terrific fire, but the old cannon still thundered back its reply. 
Admiral Hardy rained more than fifty tons of iron upon the town. 
Several houses were set on fire ; but the people dashed on water and put 

out the flames. After three days' bombard- 
ment, after having twenty men killed and fifty 
wounded, the British fleet sailed away. 

Only one American was injured, Frederic 
Denison, who died of his wounds. He was 
only nineteen years old. He was very brave, 
and fought so nobly that the State of Connecti- 
cut erected a monument to his memory. 

The country rung with praises of Jeremiah 
Holmes and the handful of men who defended 
the place so gloriously, and Admiral Hardy 
was laughed at for his ignominious failure, 
Philip Freneau wrote a ballad setting forth his exploits : 




DENISON'S MONI \lh\i. 



"The bombardiers, with bomb and ball, 
Soon made a farmer's barrack full, 

And did a cow -house sadly maul 
That stood a mile from Stonington. 



"They killed a goose, they killed a hen; 
Three hogs they wounded in a pen — 

They dashed away — and, pray, what then f 
That was not takins Stonington. 



1813.] 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 



185 



" The shells were thrown, the rockets flew, 
But not a shell of all they threw, 
Though every house was full in view, 
Could burn a house in Stonington." 

The British ship La Hogue came into Scitnate Harbor, near Boston, 
intending to burn two vessels that were loaded with flour. The men of 




A MUSICAL STRATAGEM. 



Scituate were at work in their fields ; but there were two plucky girls, 
who determined to see what they could do toward fighting the British — 
Rebecca and Abigail Bates. Rebecca was eighteen, Abigail fourteen. 
Rebecca had learned to play the fife, and Abigail knew how to beat 
the drum. 

"Yon take the drum, and I'll take the fife," said Rebecca. 

" What good will that do ?" 



186 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XLLL 

" We'll make the red-coats think that a whole regiment is coming." 

The ship had lowered its boats, and was moving toward the shore. 
The girls stationed themselves behind the rocks, and Rebecca struck up 
"Yankee-doodle;" while Abigail beat the drum and shouted, "Right face! 
march !" 

Suddenly the rowers rested on their oars and the officers listened. 
More shrill the life — louder the drum. A signal-flag went np on the La 
Jlogue. "Come back," it said; and the sailors hastened back to the ship 
just in season to get away before Captain Bates and the men hastening in 
from the fields had the six-pounder cannon ready to open fire. 

I i\- their stratagem and pluck the girls saved the town from the ma- 
rauders. 

While this was taking place on land the American ship Argus, of 
twenty-one guns, was making great havoc with the British vessels off the 
coast of England, but after a while was captured by the Pelican. Off 
Portland the American brig Enterprise, of fourteen guns, captured the 
Boxer, of fourteen guns. Captain Blythe, of the Boxer, and Captain Bur- 
rows, of the Enterprise, were both killed. The Enterprise sailed into 
Portland with her prize, and the two officers were buried side by side in 
the cemetery. So, after the loss of the Shannon and Arc/us, American 
sailors were once more victorious. 



1813.1 



SECOND AND THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR 



187 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SECOND AND THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 

" O AIL ho !" A man on the bluff of an island in Lake Erie shonted it. 

^ He could see a fleet far away. The cry rung from ship to ship 

through Commodore Perry's fleet. He had been longing to catch sight 

of the British fleet, which was commanded by Captain Barclay, who had 




I'KKIIY S LOOKOUT. 



fought under Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. Commodore Perry had nine 
vessels — the Lawrence and Niagara, twenty guns each; the rest all small 
vessels, carrying one or two guns each. Commodore Barclay had six ves- 
sels — the Detroit, twenty-one guns ; Queen Charlotte, eighteen guns ; Lady 
Prevost, thirteen guns; Hunter, ten guns; the others one gun each. Com- 
modore Perry had in all fifty-four cannon, Commodore Barclay sixty-eight. 

Commodore Perry was on board the Lawrence. 

"Pour all your broadsides into the American flag-ship," was Barclay's 



188 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIV. 




order. lie hoped by sending that vessel to the bottom to win an easy 
victory. 

"The Lawrence will engage the Detroit, the Niagara the Queen Char- 
lotte, and each captain must 
lay his vessel along- side the 
enemy as soon as possible,' 1, 
were Perry's instructions. 

Barclay had thirty -rive 
long-range guns, Perry only 
'fifteen; and the British com- 
mander calculated to cripple 
the Lawrence before Perry 
could get near enough to do 
any injury to his fleet. Per- 
ry's o-iins were larger than the 
British, and he hoped by com- 
ing to close quarters at once 
to win the victory. At the 
mast-head of his ship floated 
a flag with this inscription : 
" Don't give up the ship" — 
the last words of the commander of the American frigate Chesapeake. 

It was half-past eleven, September 10. "Give the men their dinner," 
was the signal from the Laiorence. Commodore Perry knew that if the 
men went into battle with full stomachs they 
would ram home the balls with increased 
vigor. 

Commodore Barclay is confident of vic- 
tory. He has sailed down from Maiden to 
annihilate the American fleet, and as soon as 
he has accomplished it General Proctor will 
cross Detroit River and attack General Har- 
rison and annihilate him. 

It wants fifteen minutes to twelve when 
the lifers and buglers on the Detroit strike 
up "Rule, Britannia," and a shot from a 
twenty-four-pounder skims over the water at the Laiorence ; but the dis- 
tance is a mile and a half, and it falls short. Five minutes, and a second 
shot crashes through the side of the Lawrence. The men at the guns 
are eager to srive a return shot 



COMMODORE PERRY. 




PERRY 8 BIRTHPLACE, SOUTH KIM.s- 
TON, R. I. 



1813.] 



SECOND AND THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



189 



" Steady, boys, steady," is the only answer of the self-possessed man, 
twenty-nine years old, who stands upon the quarter-deck, who before the 
sun goes down will write his name large on the scroll of fame. 

Twelve o'clock. The Scorpion is nearest the British fleet. Lieuten- 
ant Stephen Champlin, Commodore Perry's cousin, is commander, although 
but twenty-five years old. He has two guns, and fires a thirty-two pound 
ball at the nearest British vessel. At fifteen minutes past twelve the Laio- 
rence, fastest of all the American vessels, is in advance of the other Amer- 




PUT-IN BAT. (BATTLE IN THE DISTANCE.) 



ican ships. She is alone, and so near the British fleet that the gun of 
every vessel can reach her. The shot go through her sides, make great 
rents in her sails, dismount cannon, killing and wounding the sailors. 

The Lawrence, Ariel, Scorpion, and Caledonia, of the American fleet, 
are engaged. The Niagara and the small vessels arc far behind. The 
British vessels are pouring all their broadsides into the Lawrence. 

" All the officers in my division are cut down. Can T have any more?" 
is the word which Lieutenant Yarnell sends to Perry. A few minutes 
later he stands before his commander with the blood streaming down his 
face from a wound caused by a splinter which has passed through his 
nose. 

" I must have another officer." 

" I have none to send you." 



190 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIV. 



Lieutenant Yarnell goes to the forward dock, and the next moment his 
scalp is torn by a splinter; but he wipes away the blood and sights his gun 
once more. 

A shot crashes through the pantry and smashes all the plates, cups, and 

saucers. A little dog, 

■4 *4 % ~& A 4 




jr 



ii 



f 4" "41 



41 

8 



^4 

7 



^ 



4L 



FIRST POS1 riON. 



which has been hiding 
there, leaps upon the 
deck and sets up a furi- 
ous barking at the Brit* 
ish. 

It is half- past two. 
For two hours and a 

half the British cannon 
American Vessels: i. Scorpion; 2. Ariel; 3. Lawrence; 4. Caledonia; ... 

6. Niagara; 6. Somere; 7. Porcupine; 8. Tigress; 9. Trippe. Bkitisu have been pouring their 
Vessels: I. Chippewa; II. Detroit; III. Hunter; IV. Queen Char- , 1 . , ,, T 

lotte; v. LadyPrevost; vi. Lmie Beit. shot mto the Lawrence. 

The battle is going 
against Perry. The Lawrence is a helpless wreck. In a few minutes 
there will not be a man left. What shall he do? 

There are supreme moments in men's lives; such a moment has come 
to Oliver Hazard Perry. Though 
his decks are running with blood, 
though he has but one gun left, 
though his ship is a wreck, he will 
win the victory! It is only a great 
soul that can come to such a deter- 
mination. Astern, half a mile away, 
is the Niagara, with as many guns 
as the Lawrence had at the begin- 
ning. Scarcely a shot has struck 
her. Captain Elliott, for some rea- 
son, has not come into the battle. 
The other vessels of the fleet are but 
little injured. Commodore Perry 
decides to go on board the Niagara 
and begin the battle anew. lie has 
worn a plain blue jacket, but now 
pulls it oft and puts on hie uniform. 

"Lower the boat!" The order is executed, and, with his flag under 
his arm, accompanied by his little brother, Commodore Perry steps into it. 
He stands erect. The oars dip, and the boat shoots out from the Law- 




STEPHEN rilAMlM.IN. 



1813.J 



SECOND AND THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



191 



rence. Captain Barclay beholds it, and comprehends the meaning. His 
own ship, the Detroit, is almost a wreck from the pounding which it has 
had from the great guns of the Lawrence, for, though silent now, the} 7 
have been worked with terrible effect. He knows that if Perry gains the 
deck of the Niagara the battle will rage more furiously than ever. 

" Fire upon the boat !" are his orders, and the shot plough the water 
around it. The oars are splintered; one shot passes through the boat. 




PERRY CHANGING SHIP. 



"Hurrah! hurrah!" The American sailors swing their hats and give 
a cheer as they behold their brave commander passing through the storm. 
He climbs the sides of the Niagara, and then up goes his flag to the 
mast-head. 

" Close action." That is the meaning of the signal which he flings out. 
If the British think that the battle is nearly won they are mistaken; so 
far as Perry is concerned it is about to begin. 

"Double-shot the guns!" The sailors on the Niagara ram home the 
balls. 

A breeze is freshening from the south-west. All the British vessels 
are north of the Niagara. Perry determines to break through Barclay's 
line. 

How the spirit of that one brave heart on the quarter-deck of the 
Niagara goes out over the waters of Lake Erie — to the farthest gun-boat, 




192 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XIV. 

and to every sailor of the fleet ! Conquer, or go to the bottom ! that is 
the feeling. 

The sailors square the sails to the breeze, and each lagging vessel 

h 

si * "~": «_ 

7 a. 

POSITION AT THE CLOSE OF THE BATTLE. 

The dotted line from 5 to 5 shows the course of the Niagara, and the line from 4 to 4 the course of the 
Caledonia. British Vessels: L Chippewa; II. Detroit; III. Hunter; IV. Queen Charlotte; V. Lady Pre- 
vost; VI. Little Belt — Amebioah Vessels: 1. Scorpion; 2. Arid; 3. Lawrence; 4. Caledonia; 5. A7a<7- 
ora; 6. Somers; 7. I'tu-cupiue ; 8. Tigress; 9. Tripjn: 

surges nearer to the enemy. The Niagara breaks through the line, hav- 
ing the Zrtrtfy Prevost on the right side, and Chijjpeioa on the left. The 
double-shotted guns sweep their decks from stem to stern. She pours a 
broadside into the Detroit, dismounting cannon and making terrible havoc. 

"Port the helm!" 

The Niagara sweeps to the right — giving broadsides to the Detroit 
and Queen Charlotte. Up on the other side of these vessels comes the 
Caledonia, her sides ablaze. 

Three o'clock. For the 'first time during the three long hours all the 




FAC-S1MII.E OF PEROT B DESPATCH. 



American vessels are engaged — all except the Lawrence, which can no 
longer work a gun, and which has pulled down its flag; but the British 



1813.] 



SECOND AND THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



193 



Mnny, wthyou take some more 






^ ^m m '^ 



Oh f %rrt/ /// Curse that?erryl 

— One disaster after another— 3 have 

-Matte nothalf recovered oftlwBloodif-nost 

J aotat yjJ-L.M c Botimj match! 




Queen Charlotte cmcl6o\iniw Bull jot their dose of uerru. 



JOHN HULL AND QUEEN CHARLOTTE. 

cannot take possession of her. Eight minutes past three. Down comes 
Commodore Barclay's flag, and then one after another the flag of every 
British vessel. 

The thunder of the cannon ceases, and Perry, standing on the deck of 
the Niagara, writes upon the back of an old letter this despatch to Gen- 
eral Harrison : 

" We have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and 
*ne shop." 

For the first time an American fleet had met a British fleet and capt- 
ured it. The news electrified the country. Everywhere the deeds of 
Commodore Perry and the officers and sailors of his fleet were rehearsed. 
Verse writers were busy with their pens. Thus ran one of the songs: 

"Bold Barclay one day to Proctor did say, 
'I'm tired of Jamaica and cherry; 
So let us go down to that new floating town, 
And get some American Perry.* 
Ob, cheap American Perry ! 
Most pleasant American Perry ! 
We need only all bear down, knock, and call, 
And we'll have the American Perry.' " 

General Harrison's time for action had come. He was at Fort Meigs, 



* Perry is a drink made from pears. 



194 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[GlIAI'.XIV. 



with five thousand men ; and now that the British could not interfere with 
his crossing Detroit River lie would let Proctor know that there were 
blows to take as well as blows to give. 

On September 27 the fleet and army sailed across the head of the lake 
and landed in Canada, to find that Proctor had set Maiden on fire, and was 
fleeing northward. 

The Americans overtook him at the River Thames, where Proctor 
formed his troops in a narrow space between the river and a swamp. It 
was a short battle. Colonel Johnson, with his regiment of Kentucky 
riflemen, on horseback, dashed upon the Indians under Tecumtha, who was 
killed. Proctor lost all courage, and fled at the beginning of the bat- 
tle. The British troops gave way, and the Indians fled into the swam]). 
In fifteen minutes Proctor's army was scattered to the winds — five thou- 
sand guns, all the baggage captured ; the Indian confederacy which Tecum- 
tha had organized broken; the power of the British over the Indians gone 
forever. 




THAMES i:a in. I i. Kin SD. 



Iii contrast, very humiliating was the outcome of affairs at Niagara. 
Generals Dearborn, Wilkinson, and Hampton, each, in turn, mismanaged 

military operations. The Secretary of War. General Armstrong, made 
things still worse. 

Through the summer of L813 the Americans held a strip of country 
along Niagara River, in Canada; but in December General M'Clure. who 



1813.] 



SECOND AND THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



195 



commanded at Fort George, saw that he must retreat to the American 
side. He did a wicked and cruel act, for which there was no excuse — 
burning the village of Newark. It was bitter cold, and the poor people 
were made homeless by the unpardonable crime. The British, to retaliate, 
crossed the river and burnt Levviston and Buffalo. The Indians massa- 
cred Mr. Buffer's and Mr. Becort's families at Black Rock ; murdered Mr. 
Gardiner; killed, scalped, and mangled sixty helpless soldiers in the hos- 
pital at Fort Niagara, and thirty-three at Buffalo. In midwinter men and 
women were obliged to flee from the burning dwellings to save their lives. 




PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES. 



Not a life had been taken at Newark. M'Clure had burnt it, and the 
American people everywhere condemned the cruel act. Greater the in- 
famy that will forever surround the acts of Generals Murray, Drummond, 
and Itiall for allowing the Indians to massacre the unoffending inhabitants 



along the Niagara frontier. 



Nearly all the fighting up to this time had been done by soldiers who 
had had very little training. But the Americans, through their repeated 
defeats and failures, had been learning a lesson. Discipline means educa- 
tion, drill, subjection to rule, hard work. Its outcome is victory. 



L96 



MULIUNi; THE NATION. 



[Chajp. XIV. 



During the winter of 1S13-14 General Winfield Scott and General 
Ripley were drilling their brigades at Buffalo. General Brown was Com- 
mander -in -chief. Ilis first movement in the summer of 1814 was the 
sending of General Scott across Niagara River opposite Buffalo at night, 
to take Fort Erie. It was done, and two hundred British were captured, 
with a loss of only seven men. General Scott moved along the river with 
thirteen hundred men to Street's Creek, where he found General Itiall, 
with seventeen hundred. Back from the river stretched a plain, and be- 
yond it were thick woods, tilled with Indians. General Porter swung out 
toward them. Captain Towson planted his cannon by the river and opened 




BUFFALO, 1813. 



fire. There was a rattling of guns in the woods, and the Americans under 
Porter retreated; but Colonel Jessup came up and stopped the British and 
Indians, who were rushing on, yelling the war-whoop. 

The two armies were not more than three hundred feet apart — the 
soldiers deliberately firing into each other's laces. 

General Scott discovered a gap in the British line. Colonel M'Neil's 
regiment was on his left flank, lie knew what stuff M'Neil was made of, 
and directed him to charge with the bayonet. The Colonel addressed his 
men : 

" The British say we cannot stand the cold steel. Give the lie to the 
slander. Charge bayonets !" 



1814.] 



THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



197 



With a yell the Eleventh swept across the plain, their bayonets gleam- 
ing in the light of a July sun. The British line wavers, then melts away 
before the onset. Over the plain flee the soldiers who have fought under 
Wellington in Europe ; but the charge is so sudden, unexpected, and irre- 
sistible that they cannot stand before it. 

Discipline, training, submission to rule has won the victory. The Brit- 




ish had lifted their guns breast-high and pulled the trigger, while the Amer- 
icans had taken deliberate aim. Their loss was only three hundred and 
thirty-five ; the British, six hundred and four. 

The Indians who had come to take scalps, as soon as they found their 
own in danger took to their heels, and never stopped till they reached 
their haunts far away on the shores of Lake Huron. 

Several thousand British troops, which had fought under the Duke of 



lits 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIV. 



WelliugtOD in Spain, arrived at Montreal, and were sent to Niagara to 

General Riall. He had nearly five thousand men. 

On July 25 General Scott, with twelve hundred Americans, started 

from Chippewa and marched 
along the river bank. Suddenly 
he found himself confronted by 
the whole British army, drawn 
up in order of battle, along a 
lane leading to Mrs. Lundy's 
house. It was near the Falls of 
Niagara. What should he do? 
lie could not stand still and wait 
for the rest of the army, under 
General Brown, to arrive. He 
could not well retreat. In an 
instant he decided to strike such 
a blow that the British would 
think the whole of General 
Brown's army was upon them. 
The sun had gone down ; but 
General Scott could see that the 

British troops were arranged in the form of a crescent, with seven cannon 

in the centre, on a hill. He saw that the line did not extend to the river. 




JOHN M'M II. 




YIKW A I II NDY'8 I.AM.. 1 860. 



1814.] 



THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



199 




That was the place to strike first. General Jessup, with his regiment, 
swept down the river bank, struck the end of the British line, and drove 
it back toward the hill. General Riall galloped down to his fleeing sol- 
diers, and in the darkness rode 
up to the Americans. 

" Make room for General 
Riall to pass !" shouted an aid. 

" Ay, ay, sir," said Captain 
Ketchum. 

The troops moved aside. 
General Riall and his officers 
rode through, but the next 
moment found that they were 
prisoners. 

The British sweep down 
upon the Americans, but are 
driven back again to the hill. 

General Brown arrives and 
General Ripley, with his bri- 
gade, making the Americans 
twenty -six hundred against 
forty-five hundred British. It is just nine o'clock, and the last ray of twi- 
light has faded away. Upon the hill the British cannon are flaming, and 
Captain Towson with his two guns can make only a feeble reply. 

"You cannot hope to win the battle unless you silence those cannon 
on the hill," Major M'Ree — a sharp-sighted engineer — remarks to General 
Brown. 

" Then the battery must be taken." 

General Brown knows the man who can take it — Colonel James 
Miller, who was born amid the granite hills of New Hampshire, in April, 
1776, six days after the boys of '76 drove the British from Concord back 
to Boston and cooped them up in that town. In his boyhood he heard 
his father tell over and over again the story of Bunker Hill, Bennington, 
and Saratoga. He was with Harrison at Tippecanoe. Pie is now Colonel 
of the Twenty -first Regiment of United States troops — brave, strict in 
discipline, but kind-hearted; his soldiers love him, and have faith in 
him. The supreme moment of his life has come. General Brown rides 
up to him. 

" Colonel Miller, I want you to take that battery." 

Seven guns are pouring solid shot, shell, and canister upon the Amer- 



JAMES MILLER. 



200 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XIV. 

icans, making terrible havoc. Back of the cannon arc soldiers who have 
fought at Talavera and Salamanca, in Spain, lie must inarch straight 
up the hill, driving the British with the bayouet. He has but three 

hundred men. Can it be done? No demur or hesitation. 

« I'll try. sir." 

No other answer. They are words which will go down the ages — 
forever an inspiration to earnest souls. 

Colonel Nicholas's regiment is already giving way before the terrible 
fire of the guns, but that is nothing to this self-possessed man. In double 
files the three hundred move up the hill till they are within fifty feet of 
the cannon. 

"Take aim. Fire!" 

The three hundred muskets flash. 

" Charge !" They rush forward amid the guns. They meet the Brit- 
ish. There are bayonet thrusts, sabre strokes — the clashing of steel, the 
hand-to-hand grapple. The melee ends, and the three hundred — what is 
left of them — stand there victorious. Discipline has won. 

The battle was over — the British in retreat. General Brown and 
General Scott were both wounded, and the command devolved on Gen- 
eral Ripley, who, instead of holding the hill, very strangely marched back 
a mile to reorganize the army, leaving the cannon. General Drummond, 
commanding the British, when morning came, seeing the cannon still 
there, took possession of them once more. 

General Gaines arrived and took command of the Americans. Tie 
Mas at Fort Erie, which General Drummond tried to capture, but who 
was repulsed with great loss. Drummond then erected batteries, and 
poured .-hot and shell into the fort; but on September 17, a little after 
midnight, the Americans moved silently out, made a rush, drove the 
British, and spiked the guns. General Drummond lost so many men — 
between eight and nine hundred — that he hastened t<> get beyond Chip- 
pewa River. 

The country rung with the praises of General Brown, General Scott, 
and General Gaines, who had redeemed it from dishonor. But discipline 
was behind it all. 

Great events were taking place in Europe. Napoleon had abdicated 
his crown, and was on the island <>(' Elba, in the Mediterranean. The 
British troops which had been lighting him were pouring into Canada, 
where Sir George Prevost was making preparations to invade the United 
States by hake Champlain — following the track of Burgoync 

lie had fourteen thousand men, besides a fleet of vessels on the lake 



1814.] 



THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



203 



— the Confiance, carrying thirty-eight guns ; Linnet, sixteen ; Chub, eleven ; 
Finch, eleven ; eight gun-boats, each carrying two guns, and four carry- 
ing one gun each — sixteen vessels, carrying ninety-five guns. 

With such an army he would make quick work with General Macomb, 
who was at Plattsburg, with thirty-five hundred Americans, of whom more 
than one thousand were sick ; and with such a fleet he would sweep from 
the lake the American vessels — the Saratoga, twenty- six guns; Eagle, 
twenty-six; Ticonderoga, seventeen ; Preble, seven ; and ten gun-boats — 
in all fourteen vessels, carrying eighty-six guns. 

The British fleet was commanded by Captain Downie, the American 
by Commodore Macdonough. 

The British army and fleet were to attack at the same moment. 

On September 11 the British fleet appeared. Commodore Mac- 
donough stationed the Preble near Crab Island, next in line the Ticon- 
deroga, Eagle, and last the Saratoga, his flag- ship. They formed the 
front line across the entrance of Plattsburg harbor. Behind them were 
the gun-boats. 

Just before the British were near enough to open fire Commodore 
Macdonough knelt upon the deck of the Saratoga, with' all his officers 
and men around him, and offered 
a prayer to Almighty God. The 
next moment he sights a cannon 
and fires a shot, which smashes 
the wheel of Captain Downie's 
flag-ship, the Confiance, and kills 
several men. Now comes a broad- 
side from the Linnet into the 
Saratoga, one of the balls de- 
stroying the hen-coop, and a pet 
game-cock flies out, lights upon a 
gun, flaps his wings, and gives a 
lusty crow. The sailors swing 
their hats over the omen of victory. 

A sheet of flame bursts from 
the Confiance — sixteen double- 
shotted twenty -four -pounders at 
once, all aimed at the Saratoga, 

killing forty of the crew, among them Lieutenant Gamble. But a ball 
from the Saratoga a moment later dismounts a cannon on the Confiance 
and indirectly kills Captain Downie. 




THOMAS MACDONOUGH 



204 



BUILDING I Hi: NATION. 



[Chap. XIV 




VIEW KKOM CUMBERLAND HEAR 



The Eagh sends broadside after broadside into the Linnet with such 
terrible effect that in five minute's her flag comes down, and a loud hurrah 

from the Americans is heard 
above the roar of battle. A 
little later the Finch, in try- 
ing to escape from the terri- 
ble fire of the Ticonderoga, 
drifts upon the rocks and sur- 
renders. 

While this is going on the 
fourteen British gun-boats pour 
such a fire into the Pr< bit that 
Bhe i> compelled to move far- 
ther up the harbor. All of the 
guns on one side of the Sara- 
toga are disabled, and the Lin- 
net is raking her from stein to 
stern. 

( ommander Macdonongh 
is quick to act. lie sends out 




ALEXANDER U LCOMB. 



1814.] 



THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



205 



a small boat with an anchor, the sailors take up the cable, and the Sara- 
toga swings slowly round, paying no attention for the moment to the 
Linnet, but sending such a broadside into the Confiance that her captain 
pulls down his flag. Now it is the Linnets turn, and the shot crash into 
her sides till her flag comes down. 

The Ticonderoga and American gun-boats have been fighting the four- 
teen British gun-boats, which one after another strike their colors. 

On land the battle has been waxing hot. The Americans are on the 
south side of the Saranae River, the British on the north. General Pre- 




NAVAL BATTLE OP LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 



vost places his cannon in position, pouring a shower of shot and shell 
across the stream. 

The troops advance, one column fording the river above the town, 
and gaining a foothold on the south bank, then attempting to ford the 
stream at the village, but are driven back. Again they advance. 

Messengers are riding in hot haste with the news that the British fleet 
has surrendered. A wild cheer goes up from the Americans, and the 
British, losing heart, flee to the north shore. It is all over with Sir 
George Prevost. He has lost his fleet. He hastens back to Canada, 
leaving 1 all his sick and wounded. 



20G 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIV. 




BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG. (FROM AN OLD PRINT.) 

The country rings with the praises of Macomb and Macdonough. 
Everywhere were sung the songs composed by village rhymsters: 

"Oh, Johnny Bull, my jo, John, 

Behold on Lake Ghamplain, 
With more than equal foe, John, 

You tried your ti<t again. 
But the cock saw how 'twas going, 

And cried ' Cock-a-doodle-doo !' 
And Macdonough was victorious, 

Oh, Johnny Bull, my jo," 



1812.] CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 207 



CHAPTER XV. 

CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 

IN 1812, after General Hull's surrender at Detroit, Tecumtha, his brother 
Elks-wa-tawa, and thirty Indians, prepared to make a journey South, to 
enlist the Indians of Alabama and Georgia against the Americans. The 
British General Proctor urged them on. The British called Tecumtha's 
attention to a faint star in the northern shy, which every night was grow- 
ing brighter — a comet — the harbinger of war. 

Tecumtha and his followers made their way through the woods of In- 
diana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and visited the Chickasaws and Choc- 
taws. They would not go to war against the Americans, but the Creeks 
were ready to listen to him. A great council was held at the Falls of 
Tallapoosa — a gathering of five thousand Indians, who blackened their 
faces, put eagles' feathers in their hair, and fastened buffalo tails to their 
girdles, which trailed upon the ground as they marched with haughty 
strides, brandishing their tomahawks. 

The chiefs welcomed Tecumtha — all but one — Captain Isaac, who 
wore buffalo horns on his head, and who shook them at Tecumtha. 

"The chief from the lake is a bad man," he said. 

" You do not believe that the Great Spirit has sent me," said Tecum- 
tha. " You shall believe it. I shall go home to Detroit. When I get 
there you will see my arm all on fire up in the northern sky. I will 
stamp my foot, and make the ground tremble and shake your houses." 

The agent of the British at Pensacola would supply the Creeks with 
guns and powder, and was ready to pay them five dollars for every Ameri- 
can scalp taken. 

Tecumtha departed. 

The Creeks beheld in amazement a fiery star with a long trail slowly 
sweeping night after night across the northern sky. 

" It is Tecumtha's arm," they said. Suddenly they felt the ground 
tremble. It was the rumbling of an earthquake which shook the houses. 
"Tecumtha is stamping his foot," they cried. His words had proved true: 



208 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XV. 



the Great Spirit had sent him. They could doubt no longer, and made 
ready for war. On the east bank of the Alabama River, near its junction 
with the Tombigbee, stood Fort Nims. The settlers, fearing an attack, 
had tied to the fort for protection. In all their were now there rive hun- 
dred soldiers, citizens, women, and children. Major Beasley commanded 
the troops. 

"The woods are full of Indians,'' said two negro slaves, who had been 
out pasturing cattle, and who, out of breath, came running into the fort, 
August 29, L813. 

Major Beasley sent out some scouts, who came back and said that it 
was a lie — they had not seen any Indians. 

"I'll teach you to tell a lie/' said Major Beasley, who tied up one of 
the negroes and had his back cut to pieces with a whip. 

Noon came, August 30. The soldiers were at dinner; the gate of the 
fort was wide open — suddenly the people heard the war-whoop ami beheld 
the Indians rushing in. The other negro, who had not been whipped, hut 

who was tied up to a post, 
was the first one shot. Major 
Beasley, who had refused to 
believe his story, went down. 
The tight began, and lasted 
from twelve till live. When 
it was ended more than four 
hundred men, women, and 
children were lying upon the 
oround, mangled by the In- 
dians. Only twelve white 
men escaped. The Indians 
spared the negroes and made 
them their slaves. The In- 
dians made their way to Pen- 
sacola, the scalps of women 
and girls dangling at their 
belts, and received their re- 
ward from the British Gov- 
ernment — five dollars given for every scalp! 

.lames Robertson, of Tennessee, was the agent of the United States to 
the Chickasaw- and Choctaws. Be had great influence with them, for he 
treated them with kindness; instead of joining the Creeks, they were ready 
to fight them. 




JAMES ROBERTSON. 



1812.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



209 



General Andrew Jaekson was appointed commander of the Southern 
Department ; General Coffee was his second in command. They defeated 
the Creeks at Talladega, where the Indians lost nearly three hundred. 
Their great leader was Weathersford, a half-breed, who was brave and 
humane. He gathered his tribe at a bend in the River Tallapoosa, 
shaped like a horseshoe. The women and children were there. He had 
a great quantity of corn, and 
erected breastworks, deter- 
mined to defend it to the last. 
There were more than twelve 
hundred Indians in all. 

General Jackson had two 
thousand soldiers and friendly 
Indians and two cannon. He 
sent General Coffee, with the 
friendly Indians and a portion 
of the troops, to the south side 
of the bend, to prevent the 
Indians from escaping, and 
attacked the breastworks with 
the rest of the troops. The 
Indians opened tire. Colonel 
Williams, with the United 
States troops, led the advance. 
Behind them came the volun- 
teers from Tennessee. "Follow me!" shouted Major Montgomery, leap- 
ing upon the breastworks, to go down with<a bullet through his brain. By 
his side was a boy — Sam Houston — who was wounded by a barbed arrow. 

Over the breastworks streamed the soldiers, bayonetting the Indians, 
who soon fled in terror — some swam the river, to be shot down by the 
men under Coffee. 

" All who will surrender shall be spared," shouted a messenger to the 
Indians, repeating Jackson's order; but the Creeks, instead of surrender- 
ing, shot the messenger. The exasperated soldiers then shot them down 
without mercy. Of the one thousand Indian warriors, all except two 
hundred were killed. Jackson lost one hundred and twenty-five. The 
chief, Weathersford, escaped on a horse ; but he could fight no longer— 
nearly all his warriors had been killed. 

The sun was setting, live days after the battle, when a man on a white 
horse rode up to General Jackson's tent and alighted. 




210 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XV. 



" I am Weathersford," he said. " I have nothing to request for myself 
— you can kill me ; but I came to beg for the lives of the women and chil- 
dren, who are starving in the woods. I hope you will send out parties to 
bring them in and feed them. 1 did what I could to prevent the mas- 
sacre at Fort Nims. I have fought the United States; if I had an army I 
would still fight, but I have not. I ask nothing for myself. I am your 
prisoner. For my people, I can only weep over their misfortunes." 




General Jackson admired him; but there was no safety for the brave 
man even under GeneralJackson's protection. The relatives of those who 

had been massacred at Fori Xims thirsted for his blood. He was obliged 
to flee; but when the war with England was over he returned, and be- 
came a respected citizen of Alabama. The troops went out, and brought 
in the Indians and gave them food. So the Creek war was ended. 

• The President and the Cabinet and nearly everybody else thought, 
when the war began, that the lighting would all be along the lakes and in 
Canada. The idea now came to them thai England would threaten Wash- 
ington and Baltimore. In August, 1S14, a great fleet, commanded by 



1814.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



211 




JOSHUA BARNEY. 



Admiral Cockburn, and several 

thousand troops, under General 

Ross, made their appearance in 

the Chesapeake. Commodore 

Barney, who commanded a fleet 

of gun-boats, was obliged to flee 

up the Patuxent River. The 

British followed, and Barney 

destroyed his boats. General 

Ross and Admiral Cockburn 

landed, and the British army 

marched toward Washington, 

only twenty miles distant. 

President Madison and the 

inefficient Secretary of War, 

General Armstrong, were as- 
tounded. Orders were issued 

for the militia of Maryland to 

hasten and repel the invaders. 

They were commanded by General Winder, a brave and gallant officer, 

who had a hard task before him; but the ablest and bravest man that 

ever lived could have done very little under the circumstances. The 

British army was composed of 
veteran troops. The Ameri- 
cans were mostly farmers — ■ 
men who had had no military 
training. 

Xo one knows how the story 
started, but it was whispered 
that the slaves in Maryland 
and Virginia were going to 
take the opportunity to make 
themselves free, by murdering 
their masters and mistresses. 
There was not a word of truth 
in it; but women whispered it, 
with white lips, ami many of 
the militia were very reluctant 
to leave their homes. Those 
who hastened to the rendez- 




W1LLIAM H. WINDER. 



212 



1U1LDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. xv. 



voiis had only shot-guns. They were undisciplined. What could they do 
against soldiers who had been righting in France and Spain ? The British 
troops numbered five thousand, while General Winder had but thirty-five 
hundred. Yet he determined to tight a battle at Bladensburg. Presi- 
dent Madison, General Armstrong, and the Secretary of the Navy, James 
Monroe, were there, but hindered far more than they helped by giving 
orders — thus upsetting his plans. 




BRIDGE A l BLADENSBURG. 



The Americans were on the west bank of the eastern branch of the 
Potomac, which General Ross must cross before he could reach Washing- 
ton. The sailors, under Commodore Barney, fought bravely. General I ;< >S8 
lost more than five hundred men before getting across the river; but when 
he u'ot a foothold on the west side he turned the left Hank of the militia, 
who threw down their guns and tied, and the British marched on to Wash- 
ington. Admiral Cockburn, vice-admiral of the English navy, a high 
officer with great pay, entered the Capitol, which was only partly finished, 
stood in the Speaker's chair with his muddy boots, swung his hat. and 
gave a cheer. 

"Burn the building!"' he shouted, and very soon the flames were burst- 
ing out of the windows. 

All the records, all the government papers, the library — all were con- 
sumed; nothing but the blackened walls remained. Sir George Cockburn 
did not comprehend what the verdict of the world would be — that though 



1814.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



215 



an Englishman, a vice-admiral, a baronet, he was nevertheless a barba- 
rian. 

He sent Lieutenant Pratt, of the navy, to burn the President's house, 
from which Mrs. Madison had just fled, carrying away the portrait of Wash- 
ington in her arms to save it from the marauders. 

The Treasury buildings, the Arsenal, barracks for soldiers, the office of 
the Natio7ial Intelligencer, private houses, and hotels — all were licked up 
by the flames. 







THE CAPITOL AFTER THE FlltE 



At midnight the British silently stole away, leaving their wounded 
for the Americans to care for. They reached their ships, sailed down the 
river and along Chesapeake Bay, sending expeditions on shore to plunder 
the people and burn the dwellings. 

Sir Peter Parker, commanding the frigate Menelaus, Admiral Cock 
burn and General Ross, and other officers, went on shore at a little vil- 
lage where there were Only women and children. 

" I give you ten minutes to get out of your houses before I set them on 
fire," said Coekbnrn. 







PRESIDENTS BOUSE AFTER THE FIRE. 



216 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XV. 



( )ne of the officers wrote to his friends in England about it. 
" We most valiantly," he said, "set fire to the unprotected property, not- 
withstanding the tears of the women, and, like a parcel of savages, as we 
were, danced around the wreck of ruin. We came to a dwelling-house 
mi the beach. Like midnight murderers we cautiously approached the 
house. The door was open, and we unceremoniously intruded ourselves 
upon three young ladies sitting quietly at tea. Sir George Cockburn, Sir 
Peter Parker, and myself entered the room rather suddenly, and a simul- 
taneous scream was our welcome. 

"Sir George was austere, but Sir Peter was the handsomest man in 

the navy, and to the latter the 
ladies appealed. Cockburn told 
them that he knew their father 
to be an American officer — a 
colonel of militia — and that, his 
duty being to burn their house, 
he gave them ten minutes for re- 
moving what they most desired 
to save. The young women, on 
their knees, begged the admiral 
to spare their house. 

" The youngest, a girl of six- 
teen, and lovely beyond the gen- 
eral beauty of those parts, threw 
herself at Sir Peter's feet and 
prayed him to interfere. The 
tears started from his eyes in a 
moment, and I was so bewil- 
dered at the afflicting scene that I appeared to see through a thick 
mist.- 

" Cockburn was unmoved, with his watch on the table, measuring the 
fleeting minute.-. The other girls were in teal's, asking for mercy. Sir 
Peter had opened hi- lip- to plead for them, when the brutal Cockburn 
stopped him, and ordered his men to bring the h'redtalls. Never shall 1 
forget the despair of that moment. Poor Sir Peter wept like a child, 
while the girl clung to his knee.- and impeded his retreat. Admiral Cock- 
burn walked oul with his usual haughty stride, followed by the two elder 
girls, who vainly- implored him to countermand the order. In a moment 
the house was in flame.-. 'We retreated from the scene of ruin, leaving the 
three daughters gazing at the work of destruction, which made the inno- 




.Ml;.-. MAM-o.s. 



1814.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



217 



cent houseless and the affluent 
beggars. . . . By the light of 
that house we embarked and 
returned on board. It was a 
scene which impressed itself 
upon my heart, and which my 
memory and my hand unwill- 
ingly recall and publish." 

"I must have a frolic with 
the Yankees," said Sir Peter 
Parker, and he crossed the bay 
and landed his marines to plun- 
der Moorstield. He landed in 
the night, marched toward the 
village, but suddenly was con- 
fronted by a flashing of guns. 
The citizens of Moorstield had 
turned out to defend their 
homes. Nineteen of the British were 
Peter. 

" I shall make my winter-quarter 




ADMIRAL SIR PETER PARKER. 




SAMUEL SMITU. 



killed. One of the number was Sir 

s at Baltimore," said General Ross 
as the fleet sailed toward that 
city. " It is a doomed town,'" 
said Vice-admiral Warren. 

Baltimore had forty thou- 
sand inhabitants, and would be 
a delightful place to winter in. 

At midnight, September 
11, General Ito.-s landed at 
North Point, flfteen miles 
from Baltimore, with nine 
thousand men. He would 
march to the city, while the 
fleet would sail up and de- 
molish Fort M' Henry. 

General Samuel Smith, 
who had been appointed to 
command the troops which 
were to defend Baltimore, was 
cool-headed, brave, and ener- 



218 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XV. 



getic. The citizens determined to make a brave fight. General Smith 

had nine thousand men. Tie sent General Strieker, with thirty-two hun- 
dred, down the road lead- 
ing to North Point, to an- 
noy the British in their ad- 
vance. General Strieker 
posted his men where there 
was a creek on one Hank 
and a marsh on the other. 
He sent one hundred and 
fifty riflemen down to Mr. 
Cole's store, to see what 
General Ross was doing. 
Two of them, Daniel Wells 
and Henry C. M'Comas, 
had been in the battle of 
Bladensburg. They con- 
cealed themselves in a hol- 
low, and soon discovered 
the British army advanc- 
ing. 
Admiral Cockburn was riding with General Iloss, and they were very 

jolly over the prospect of soon being in Baltimore. 

The one hundred and fifty riflemen suddenly open fire, and the British 

reply. General Boss rides up to see what is going on. Daniel and Henry 




GENERAL STKK'KKK. 




BATTLE-GROUND AT NORTH POIN 



fire at him, and he falls from his horse mortally wounded. The next 
moment both of the brave men are shot down. 

Colonel Brooke takes command of the British, who rush on to avenge 



1814.] CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 219 

the death of their commander; but for two hours the twenty-five hundred 
Americans hold their ground, then slowly fall back half a mile to the 
intrenchments which General Smith has erected. 

Colonel Brooke condescended to wait till Admiral Cockburn could 
batter Fort M' Henry to pieces, and silence the guns in the batteries along 
the shore, before attacking General Smith. 

Major George Armistead commanded the fort, and Commodore Bod- 
gers of the navy the batteries. 

The morning of September 13 dawns, and sixteen war-vessels open fire 
upon the fort and batteries along the shore. All day and night shot and 
shell are rained upon the fort. 




REMAINS OF BATTERY. 



When the sun goes down the people in Baltimore wonder if, when it 
rises, the Stars and Stripes will still be flying. In the dim gray of the 
morning the thunder suddenly ceases. Has the fort surrendered ? 

From the steeples, from the house-tops, the people gaze with anxious 
eyes toward the fort. The sun rises — it is still there. The British ships 
are sailing away, and the British army is hastening on board their vessels. 
In the enthusiasm of the moment Francis S. Key takes an old letter from 
his pocket and writes upon it the song of the " Star-spangled Banner:" 

" Oh say ! can you see, by the dawn's early light, 

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming, 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 

O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming ? 
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there? 

Oh say ! does that star-spangled banner yet wave 

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" 

Admiral Cockburn, instead of plundering and burning Baltimore, as 
he had Washington, hastened down the Chesapeake. 



220 BUILDING THE NATION. [CiiakXV. 

There was great rejoicing in London when the news arrived of the 
burning of Washington. The cannon in the Tower were fired, and Par- 
liament passed a vote of thanks to Admiral Cockburn. When, a few 'lavs 
later, news was received of the death of General Ross, Parliament set lip 
a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, and authorized his descendants 
to style themselves as " Ross of Bladensbnrg." The London Times, which 
represented the aristocracy of England, had this to say : 

"That ill-organized association (the American Republic) is on the eve 
of dissolution, and the world is speedily to be delivered of the mischievous 
example of a government founded on democratic rebellion." 

When Admiral Cockburn died, in 1S53, the London Times spoke of 
the burning of the Capitol as a "splendid achievement. ,, 

There were a few men in England who were ready to hide their faces 
in shame over the terrible atrocities committed by Cockburn, who will 
ever lie known in history as a barbarian and marauder; but most of the 
dukes, lords, and nobles gloried over his acts. In the United States there 
was deep mortification over the national humiliation. Secretary of War 
Armstrong, who had mismanaged military affairs from the beginning, was 
obliged to resign. 

Ear reaching was the effect of the humiliation. It aroused a hostility 
toward England — a sense of injury — which, though seventy years have 
rolled away, is still felt by the people of the United States. 

Those were weary days to President Madison. There was very little 
gold or silver money in the country. The United States Treasury issued 
it> notes — -promises to pay — to the soldiers, and to those who were selling 
beef, flour, and supplies ; but everybody was asking when the notes would 
be paid. The credit of the government began to decline. The ships of 
the country were destroyed or blockaded. Grass was growing in the 
streets of the seaports. 

The President had divided the country into military districts, and gave 
the generals authority to call out the militia. Governor Strong, of Massa- 
chusetts, maintained that the governors of the States, at the request of the 
President alone, were authorized to order out the militia; and because the 
troops of that State and of Connecticut were not placed under the com- 
mand of General Dearborn, at the beginning of the war, the Secretary 
of War refused to pay any of the expenses which had been incurred by 
those States. The people of New England complained that the govern- 
ment had treated them unfairly. Their ships were destroyed or were 
rotting at the wharves, their industries paralyzed. The President had, 
it was assorted, issue< orders not authorized by the Constitution. 



1814.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



223 



In December, 1815, twenty-six delegates froHi-tfieNew England States 
assembled in convention at Hartford, Connecticut, and discTT55c4-4l ^pow er 
of the national government, and prepared amendments to the Constitu- 
tion. The President believed that they intended to dissolve the Union, 
and sent General Jesup to Hartford with a regiment; but there was no 
truth in the reports. 

History is a net-work of events. Inseparably connected with the last 
great battle of the war is an event that transpired far away in the harbor 
of Fayal, one of the Azores. 

The American privateer General Armstrong, commanded by Captain 
Chester Reid, sailed into the harbor September 26, 1814. He wanted to 
till his casks with fresh-water, and in the morning he would be out upon 
the ocean searching for British 
ships; but just at sunset in 
came six war-vessels, with two 
thousand troops on board. 
Admiral Lloyd commanded 
the squadron, which was on 
its way to the West Indies, to 
join Admiral Cochrane, who, 
with Sir Edward Pakenham, 
intended to capture New Or- 
leans. The British command- 
er determined to seize the 
American vessel, although in 
a neutral port under the gov- 
ernment of Portugal. It 
would be a violation of the 
laws of nations. But he cared 
very little for international 
laws. 

The sun went down. " Clear the decks for action !" said Captain Eeid. 

" The British will not dare to molest you," said Mr. Dabney, wiio had 
come on board. 

"Perhaps not; nevertheless it will do no harm to be ready for them." 

The moon threw its silver light upon the calm and peaceful sea. Cap 
tain Beid heard the dipping of oars, and saw four boats approaching. 

" Boats ahoy !" 

No answer to the hail. 

" Boats ahoy !" 




SAMDEL CHESTER KEiD. 



2l ; 4 BUILDING TJ IE NATION. [Chap. XV. 

No reply. 

"Boats ahoy!" 

No sound but the dipping of the oars. Ho turned to the crew. 

"Even- man to his place. Stand ready. Fire!" 

Cannon and muskets flamed. A wail rent the air from dying men, 
and the boats pulled away to the ships. 

A boat shot out from the shore to the British fleet with a letter from 
the governor to the commander. " I forbid hostilities. The General 
Armstrong is under the guns of the castle, and entitled to protection," 
was the message. 

"If any attempt is made to shield the General Armstrong I will bora- 
bard the town," was the answer sent back by Admiral Lloyd, who was 
in a great rage. 

Out from their houses and down to the shore rushed the people. It 
was midnight, and by the light of the moon they saw fourteen boats, with 
live hundred men on board, moving swiftly in. 

"Boats ahoy!" shouted Captain Reid. 

No answer. Again flashed the cannon of the General Armstrong, 
loaded with grape. The British sailors give a cheer, bend to their oars, 
run along-side, and begin to climb the sides of the Armstrong, some to 
fall back again with their hands chopped off, or wounded by bayonet 
stabs and pistol shots. By the side of Captain Reid is a pile of pistols, 
all loaded and cocked. He tires them two at a time, using both hands. 
Of his men Lieutenant Williams is killed, Lieutenant Worth and Lieu- 
tenant Johnson wounded; but the brave men under him have no thought. 
of yielding. For forty minutes the fight goes on — the British not for 
an instant gaining a foothold on the deck. All the boats are beaten off, 
three sent to the bottom, the others making their way back to the ships. 
The bay is filled with floating corpses, the water crimsoned with the blood 
of more than three hundred killed and wounded. Of those on the Arm- 
strong only two were killed and seven wounded. 

Morning dawned. The Coronation, carrying twenty guns, sailed in 
and opened tire; but the cannon of the General Armstrong, sighted with 
truest aim. did such execution that she was driven back. Then all the 
flee! flamed. Captain Reid, seeing no chance of saving the vessel, but 
determined that the British flag should never float from its mast-head, 
scuttled the ship, escaping with his men to the shore. 

"Deliver up the Americans as prisoners," was Admiral Lloyd's or- 
der to the governor. "If you do not I will land five hundred soldiers 
and take them." 



1615.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



225 



"We will not be taken," said Captain Reid. He took possession of 
a stone convent. 

The British commander, after the loss lie had suffered, did not dare to 
attempt their capture. He had lost more than five hundred men (among 
them some of his best officers), and had received so much damage that ten 
days passed before he could sail. They were ten days that could not be 
recalled. 




In the net -work of events on this terrible defeat in the harbor of 
Fayal hung another defeat for the British army before New Orleans. 

Up the Gulf of Mexico sailed a fleet of fifty vessels, with seven thou- 
sand troops, under General Pakenham. The officers were accompanied 
by their wives. They had gay times on the 
vessels, and intended to pass a pleasant win- 
ter in New Orleans, which was so far from 
the settled portions of the United States that 
they expected to meet with no great oppo- 
sition from the Americans. Once taken, it 
could be held forever. 

The man who, when a boy during the 
Revolution, refused to black the boots of a 
British officer in South Carolina— Andrew 
Jackson (see " Boys of '76 ") — was in com- 
mand? at New Orleans. 

When the British fleet appeared off the 
coast he had but a few undisciplined men; 

but troops from Kentucky and Tennessee wer,e coming down the river on 
flat-boats — hunters who could bring down a partridge on the wing. If they 
came before the British General Jackson could hold the city. Time was 
what he wanted. Invaluable t<> the Americans those ten days lost at Rival. 

General Pakenham made his way in boats through Lake Borgne, and 
approached New Oilcans. 

All through Christmas- week there was skirmishing and some hard 
fighting between the British and the troops which Jackson had stationed 
at Chalmette's plantation. The hunters from the North arrived. General 
Jackson threw up a breastwork below the city from the Mississippi to a 
cypress swamp. Slaves and citizens worked with the spade and shovel. 
Teams carted hogsheads of sugar and bales of cotton, which were used to 
strengthen the line. General Jackson had twenty cannon, which were 
placed along the embankment. Colonel Poss commanded the right wing, 



ANDREW JACKSON 



22i\ 



|;l ll.LIM. THE NATION. 



[Chap. XV. 



General Carroll the centre, and General Coffee the left. A mile and a 
half in rear of his first line General .laekson threw up a second, so that 
if driven from the first he would make a second fight. 

Daylight gleamed in the east January 8, and the Americans, behind 
their earthworks, beheld a long line of red-coated soldiers advancing in 




three columns. Some of the British had bundles of brush on their backs, 
which they were bringing to throw into the ditch in front of -Jackson's 
breastworks, that they might cross it. Some bad ladders, which they were 
to use in climbing over the breastworks. 

Pakenham opened lire, and Jackson replied. < m came the British* 
but suddenly there was a sheet of flame all along the breastworks, the 



1815.} 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



227 







jackson's head-quarters. 



soldiers taking deliberate aim, the men in the rear loading; the guns and 
handing them to those in front — whole platoons go down in a twinkling. 
Among the killed are General Pakenham. General Gibbs, and General 
Kean, next in rank. 

By the river Colonel Renie, leading his men, rushes np to the parapet. 

"Hurrah, boys ! the day is ours!" he shouted. But it is not theirs. 




chal.mktte's plantation. 



228 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. xv. 



lie goes down in the storm. Everywhere the British are repulsed, fleeing 
al last, leaving twenty-six hundred killed and wounded on the field, while 
General Jackson has lost eighl killed and thirteen wounded. 

Never had a British army experienced a more decisive defeat. The 
ten days lost at Fayal had a ureal deal to do with it. 

The war was over. Peace had been signed at Ghent before the battle 
of New Orleans was fought, bnt the news of the signing of the treaty was 
not received in New York till February 11. There was great rejoicing. 
A courier on horseback started for Boston. He arrived there in thirty- 
two hours, early on the morning of the 13th, just as the people were eat- 




IRLEANS (FROM LN OLD I'KIM 



Lug breakfast. They rushed into the streets tossing their hats into the air 
and shouting the welcome news. The church hells rung, and the people 
came from all the surrounding town-, wondering what had happened. 

Flags were Hung out from window*; drums heat; the military com- 
- paraded; everybody who owned a horse harnessed it. There was 
. gjrand procession of sleighs and >led>: everybody was invited to ride. 
From the day of the news of Cornwallis's surrender there had been 
no such hand -shaking, hurrahing, waving of flags, tossing of hats, and 
singing of songs. A week later there Was a grand procession of all the 
trades and industries; an oration at King's Chapel ; lire-works; a hall in 
the evening, where the ladies danced with British officers belonging to 
the war-vessels which had Bailed into the harbor and dropped anchor— 



', 




1815.] 



CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



231 




remains o? Rodriguez's canal, new Orleans. 

dancing and drinking of healths, forgetting that a few days before they 
had been enemies. 

" Peace ! and no longer from its brazen portals 

The blast of war's great organ shakes the skies ; 
But, beautiful as songs of the immortals, 
The holy melodies of love arise." 

The war began, on the part of the United States, in disaster and hu- 
miliation ; it ended in victory. The commissioners who signed the treaty 
of peace said nothing about the imprisonment of seamen; but from that 
day to the present no American citizen has been imprisoned on board a 
British war- vessel. England had learned an unwelcome but useful les- 
son — that she was no longer supreme ruler of the seas, and that beyond 
the Atlantic was a people who would fight for a principle. The people 
who but a few years before had paid tribute to the Algerians had hum- 
bled the pride of England. The world rejoiced over the result. 

To the people of the United States came the dawning of the idea that 
the country was not a confederacy, but a union of States, connected by 
patriotic blood, bound together by inseparable ties — a government of all 
the people. 



232 



BUILDINW THK NATION. 



[Chap. XVI. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



FROM 1817 To 1832. 



JAMES MONROE became President in 1817. The people began to 
recalize, as never before, that the United States were destined to be- 
come a great and powerful nation. The people were still poor; but in 
their poverty remembered that there were many thousands still living who 
had served in the army of the Revolution, and to show their gratitude 
pensioned those still living and the widows of those who had died. No 
other nation has ever shown such gratitude 
and care. On the banks of the Thames, at 
Greenwich, stands a stately building, erected 
by Sir ( '. Wren, on the site of a palace of 
the kings of England. Edward Land Henry 
VIII. lived there. William III. set it apart 
for a hospital for offi(?ers and soldiers of the 
army and navy; and every seaman in the navy 
had sixpence per month set aside from his 
wages tor its support. l!ut neither Great 
Britain or any other nation ever pensioned as 
tlic United States have dour the men who 
had served in its armies. Before the last sol- 
din' of the Revolution died the governme.nl had paid sixty-five million 
dollars in pensions. 

Away hack in 1777, when the people were lighting for Independence, 
Congress decided thai the Hag of the country should consist of thirteen 
Btars and thirteen stripes — one for each State. That was the flag which 

d at Saratoga and Yorktown. In 17'.»4 Congress passed a law that 
when a new State was added there should be an additional stripe and star. 
The stripes had been narrowing, and with new States would become still 
narrower. The States were increasing in number, admitted in the follow- 

rder: L812, Louisiana; L816, Indiana: 1*17. Mississippi; 1818, Illi- 
nois ; 1 silt, Alabama. 




J IMES MONRO! . 



1817.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



233 



The man who had fought such a brave battle in the harbor of Fayal, 
on the deck of the General Armstrong, Samuel Chester Reid, was the first 
to see how the flag could be kept in its true proportions and yet represent 




l'KNSIONKUS. 



every State that might be added to the Republic — it was to have always 
thirteen stripes to represent the States which established the Republic, but 
to add an additional star on the admission of a new State. 

8* 



234 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVI. 



In April, 1818, Congress passed a law that from July -i of that year 
sueh should be the flag of the country. In Captain Reid'e drawing-room, 
in New York City, Mrs. Reid and her lady friends laid out the white and 
crimson stripes and the field of blue, as in the old flag, spangled with 




stars, sewed them together, and sent the flag to Washington, where, on the 
morning of July 4, it was raised above the < Japitol to represent to the world 
the rising dignity and the imperishable glory of the young Republic: 

"Bright flag, at yonder tapering must, 
Fling <>ut your field <>f azure Mue; 
Lei star- and atripea be westward oast, 
And point a- freedom's eagle flow." 



1818. J FKOM 1817 TO 1832. 235 

Though the war with England had closed there was great distress. 
Not much money had been coined at the Mint in Philadelphia. The sil- 
ver in circulation was of Spanish or English coinage. Congress had estab- 
lished a decimal currency of dollars, cents, and mills; so, although the 
country was independent of Great Britain, and a nation politically, it was 
not independent in money. 

People still kept their accounts in shillings and pence. There was 
much confusion in money-matters, for there were several kinds of shil- 
lings. An English shilling was twenty-five cents ; a New England shil- 
ling, sixteen and two-third cents; a York shilling, twelve and a half cents. 
In New England twelve and a half cents was ninepence; in New York, a 
shilling; in Ohio, a "bit." In New England six and a quarter cents was 
fourpence half-penny; in New York, sixpence; in. New Orleans, a "pica- 
yune." In New England six shillings made a dollar; in New York it 
required eight. People were obliged to trade by barter for want of 
money. Banks were chartered which issued bills — promises to pay — which 
were valuable only in proportion to the ability of the banks to pay a dollar 
in silver for its notes. The bank-bills served for money so long as the 
people had confidence that the banks were able to pay ; but if they 
mistrusted their ability and demanded silver there was trouble. Very 
few of the banks in the country towns could pay. Many failed. The 
directors of one bank were very shrewd. They sent to Boston and ob- 
tained several kegsful of fourpence-half-penny pieces, and it took the cash- 
ier so long to count one hundred or one thousand dollars in such small 
pieces that the men who presented the bills usually got tired of waiting. 
The directors never let the kegs get empty, and so prevented a run, and 
saved the bank from failure. When a bank failed the people were the 
sufferers. 

When Monroe became President there were four hundred and forty- 
six banks in the country, with a capital of ninety million dollars. Most 
of them failed or were obliged to wind up their affairs. The charter of 
the United States Bank, which Hamilton planned soon after the adoption 
of the Constitution, expired in 1811. During the war with England 
there was no United States Bank, and the banks chartered by the several 
States were prosperous; but in 1816 a new charter was granted, with 
a capital of thirty-five million dollars. The United States held seven 
millions of the stock. The Government kept all its spare money in the 
bank, which made it so powerful that it could control the business of the 
country. 

With nearly all the other banks failing, and little money to be had, 



236 BUILDING- THE NATION. [Chap. XVL 

there was a stagnation of trade. The farmer could not sell what he 
raised; carpenters, joiners, and bricklayers could not find work. There 
was no price for property; few sales except by the sheriff; few purchasers 
except the creditors who bid off farms and goods, at the sheriff's auction, 
at their own price. 

Amid the distress new forces were comiug into play to revolutionize 
society. The revolution began in England when James Hargreaves and 
Richard Arkwright set mill-wheels and steam-engines to work to spin cot- 
ton and wool. In 17S9, the year that the Constitution of the United States 
was adopted, Samuel Slater came from England to the United States to 
become an American citizen. He had seen Arkwright's machines for 
spinning. lie had few tools; but, after overcoming many difficulties, he 
made lour spinning-frames, and set them whirling by a water-wheel in an 
old fulling-mill in Pawtncket, Rhode Island, in 170" — starting the first cot- 
ton manufactory in the United States. Eli Whitney invented, in 1793, the 
cotton-gin. In the year 1800 Arthur Scholfield, who had been making 
spinning and carding machines in England, decided to become an Ameri- 
can citizen. The British Government had passed a stringent law pro- 
hibiting any one from sending any manufacturing machinery out of that 
country, as England wanted to manufacture cotton and woollen cloth for 
all the world. The British custom-house officers would not let him bring 
his own tools to this country, for fear that he would construct carding and 
.-pinning machines on this side of the Atlantic. He came without them, 
lie had no drawings of machines, but remembered how they were con- 
structed; and. with such tools as he could find in a blacksmith's shop, set 
himself to work at Pittsfield, Mass. On November 2, 1801, he issued this 
advertisement : 

"Arthur Scholfield respectfully informs the inhabitants of Pittsfield and the neigh- 
boring towns, that he has a carding-machine where they may have their wool curded 
into rolls for twelve and a half cents per pound; mixed, fifteen cents per pound. If 
thej find grease and pick the grease in, it will be ten cents per pound."' 

It was the first machine in the CTnited States used for carding wool. lie 
sent the woollen "rolls" out to the farm-houses, where they were spun and 
woven into cloth by women and girls. When he had fulled and dressed 
his "broadcloth" he tried to sell it to Isaiah Bissel, who kept store in Pitts- 
field ; but neither he nor any other of the store-keepers would purchase it. 

• Nobody will buy broadcloth manufactured here," they said. 

Mr. Scholfield took it to Now York, but was obliged to sell it very cheap. 
Weeks went by; Mr. Bissel, meanwhile, had been there to purchase goods. 



1818.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



237 



"Step in and see my 
broadcloths," he said to Ar- 
thur Scliolfield. 

Mr. Scliolfield examined 
them. " I have seen those 
broadcloths before." 

" Seen them before ! 
Where?" 

"I made them; 
there is my pri- 
vate mark." 

Mr. Bissel was 
astonished to learn 




Till-: STAGE. 



that he had purchased as British broadcloth what had been manufactured 
within a few rods of his store, and which he had once refused to purchase. 
In 1808 Mr. Scliolfield manufactured thirteen yards of broadcloth 
from the wool of Merino sheep, and presented it to President Madison, 
who had it made into a suit of clothes, which he wore when he was in- 
augurated President of the United States. 



238 



HU1L1)IX<; THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVI 



Through tlic years people had been riding horseback — women on side- 
saddles or on pillions, carrying their children in their arms. Before the 
Revolution wagons were in use in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, 
but very few in the country. They were rudely constructed, and their 
pounding and rattling created a racket which was called "homespun thun- 
der." Stages came into use at the beginning of the century — gayly-painted 







OLD-TIME I'll USE. 



coaches, drawn by four or six horses, carrying nine passengers inside, two 
on the scat with the driver, and three on the top, with a pile of trunks on 
the rack behind; changing horses at the country towns, making seventy 
miles a day. Chaises came into use, but only well -to-do people could 
afford to use them. 

The Dutch fanners who lived along the Mohawk River, in Xew York, 
conld go in boats from Schenectady up to Little Falls; but there the river 
foamed over a rocky ledge, breaking navigation. General Philip Schuy- 
ler, who had fought bravely during the Revolution, conceived the idea of 
digging a canal around the falls, in which there would be several locks, 
lie invited the farmers to meet him at a tavern, near Little. Falls, to see 
what could be done. The Dutchmen liked him, and were ready to believe 
all he had to say; but they could not understand how he could get a boat 
over the falls. 

"I will do it with lock.-." 

" \'y. sheneral, you no make ze vater run uphill !'' 

Notwithstanding his explanation they shook their head-. A thought 
came to him. He went into the garden, dug a little canal, made dams 
across it, poured in a pailful of water, and locked a chip from the lower 
end up pasl the dams. 



1818.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



239 



The Dutchmen saw how it was done, and were delighted. 

" Veil, veil, sheneral, now ve understand, and ve vill go mit you for ze 
canal," they said. 

The canal around the falls was built in 1796, and was of great benefit 
to the United States during the war with Great Britain, enabling boats 
with supplies for the troops to go from Schenectady to Lake Oneida. 

It is not known who first conceived the idea of a canal from Hudson 




DE WITT CLINTON. 



River to Lake Erie, but Gouverneur Morris and James Geddis were talk- 
ing about it in 1810. Mr. Geddis lived in Onondaga, and was so full of 
the scheme that he made surveys at his own expense. A commission was 
appointed by the governor to explore a route; but the war began, and they 
had other things to think of. 

De Witt Clinton was mayor of New York. He saw emigrants pushing 
Westward— a constant stream of wagons through the Mohawk Valley from 
New England— to settle Western New York and Ohio. He saw that if a 
canal were constructed from Hudson River to Lake Erie it. would bring a 
o-reat tide of commerce to New York, and be of incalculable benefit to the 



24i» BUILDING THE NATION. [ (map. XVI. 

country. A meeting was held in October, 1815, in the City Hall, to see 

what could be done about it. 

"The whole line of the canal," said the mayor, "will exhibit boats laden 
with Hour, pork, beef, pot and pearl ashes, flaxseed, wheat, corn, barley, 
hemp, wool, tlax, iron, lead, copper, salt, gypsum, c<>ai, tar, fur, peltry,gin- 
seng, beeswax, 'cheese, butter, lard, stoves, lumber, and merchandise from 
all parts of the world. ... It remains for a free State to create a new 
era in history, and to erect a work more stupendous, more magnificent, 
and more beneficent than has hitherto been achieved by the human 
race." 

"Don't thee think Friend Clinton lias a bee in his bonnet?" asked a 
Quaker. 

The far-seeing man was laughed at by some of his friend-, but the 
people believed in him, and elected him governor. July -f. L817, came, 
and as the stin was rising De Witt Clinton and the commission appointed 
to construct the canal stood in a field at Rome. 

"By this great highway," said Samuel Voting, "which we are about 
to construct, unborn millions will transport their surplus products to the 
Atlantic, and hold profitable intercourse with the maritime nations of the 
earth." 

Judge Richardson threw up a shovelful of earth, and the work was 
begun. Eight years went by. John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, was 
President. De Witt Clinton the while had been pushing his great enter- 
prise. People laughed at him. 

•• lie is digging a big ditch, and will bankrupt the State." they -aid: 
but the work went on all the same. 

On < October 26, 1825, at ten o'clock in the morning, a cannon was tired 
at Ibiffalo — a signal that the canal was completed, and that the water had 
been let into it. Cannon had been stationed along the canal and the Hud- 
son River to New York City. One by one they look up the signal, trans- 
mitting the j<»yful news in one hour and thirty minutes. 

The canal-boat Seneca Chiefs drawn by four gray horses gayly capari- 
soned, with Governor Clinton and invited gnc>r> on board, followed by 
other boats, started from Buffalo eastward. One of the boats was NodNs 

Ark, with two eagles, a bear, two drrv, a great variety of birds, and two 

[ndian boys on board, representing the contribution of the great unsettled 
West to the civilized East. Flags floated above the boats. In every town 
were celebrations, speeches, music, tiling of cannon, and feasting. At 
sunrise, November 4-. all the church bells of New York were ringing, can 
non thundering, flags flying, while a multitude of people from New Eng 



1325.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



241 



land, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Southern New York thronged the 
streets and crowded the wharves, to welcome the fleet of twenty-nine 
steamboats escorting the Seneca Chief and JSfoaKs Ark, and the other 





M 



^S| 



'^fSSm^^^ ii^p^ 









Zzj- 




LOCKS AT LOCKPORT. 



boats which had arrived from Buffalo. The harbor swarmed with ships 
and small craft. Every vessel displayed flags from bowsprit to top-mast. 
The British war-ships ran out their cannon and fired salutes. The sailors 
climbed the rigging, stood upon the yards, and waved their caps. Their 
bands played "God Save the King," and the American bands gave " Yan- 
kee Doodle." Governor Clinton, standing on the deck of the Seneca Chief, 
lifted a gilded keg tilled with water from Lake Erie and poured it into 
the harbor. 



242 



BUILDINC THE NATION. 



[Chap xvi. 



"May the God of the heavens and the earth," lie said, "smile most 
propitiously on this work, and render it subservient to the best interests of 
the human race." 







I \ i i; \M I. in THE ERIE CANAL AT TROT. 



Other canals were built in Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New 
York, Virginia, and Maryland; but the Erie Canal, far beyond all others, 
was of benefil to the country and to the world. 

From the time when Cabez de Vaea landed in Florida, in L528 
'•Old Times in the Colonies," p. 25), thai portion of the country had been 
held by Spain. The Seminole Indian-, who built their palmetto huts 
in the everglades, began to murder settlers in Georgia. The Creeks in 
Alabama joined them, but General Jackson quickly put an end to their 
depredations. He marched with one thousand men and destroyed their 
corn and cattle. He learned that the Spaniards in Florida had stirred up 
the Indian.-, and upon his own responsibility invaded Florida, going to St. 
Mark's, where he found two Englishmen, Arbuthnol and Ambrister, who 
had been urging the Indian- to murder the Americans. They were tried 
by court-martial, found guilty, and hung, tie discovered that the Spanish 
governor at Pensacola was helping the Indian.-, and marched to that town. 



1819.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



24b 



The governor fled to Fort Barancas, but when he saw General Jackson 
getting ready to attack it surrendered. The Spanish minister at Wash- 
ington protested against the invasion, but the President and the country 
approved of what he had done. Spain cared little for Florida, and offered 
to sell it for §5,000,000. The offer was accepted, and in 1819 it came 
into possession of the United States. 

Missouri and Maine were ready to become States. Missouri had been 
settled by the French in 1755. The oldest town was St. Genevieve. It 
was west of the Mississippi, and in the Territory of Louisiana (purchased 
from Fiance). People from Kentucky and Tennessee had gone there with 
their slaves. Should it be a free or slave State? That provision in the 
Constitution which recognized slaves as property entitled to representation 
had become a political power. The people of the Southern States wished 
it to come in as a slave State, that they might keep even with the Northern 
States in Congress. Should the people of Missouri be prohibited from 
holding slaves! There was angry discussion in Congress — threatenings to 
dissolve the Union on the part of Southern members if slavery was to be 
prohibited. It was the first 
conflict between slavery and 
freedom under the Constitu- 
tion. Slavery won. The State 
was admitted, with no restric- 
tion against holding slaves, but 
it was agreed that in the ter- 
ritory north of latitude thirty- 
six degrees thirty minutes, the 
southern boundary of Missouri, 
slavery should be forever pro- 
hibited. It was called a com- 
promise. 

Among the members from 
the Southern States who took 
part in the discussion was John 
Randolph, of Virginia, who was 
a descendant of Pocahontas, 
lie was sometimes eloquent, 

bat usually sarcastic. Another member was Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 
who was born in Virginia, in 1777, and went to school in a log school- 
house. Tie drove a team of mules when he was a boy, drawing corn to 
mill ; and in after life, when he became a great statesman, he was called 




JOHN RANDOLPH. 



244 



1U ILDl.\(i THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVI, 




the "mill-boy of the slashes." When he was very young, he went to 
Lexington, Kentucky, became a lawyer, and began his great career. Be 
was elected to the Senate of the 
United States in 1808, and had 
a great deal to do with building 
the nation. He lived at Lexing- 
ton, and gave the name of " Ash- 
land" to his home. 

The nation was still teaching 
by example. Republicanism in 
France had gone out in anarchy. 
Napoleon Bonaparte had swept 
Europe with the armies of France, 
but the Empire which he estab- 
lished had gone clown. The 
kings of Europe had put down 
all attempts of the people to se- 
cure their rights; but the coun- 
tries of South America and Mex- henry clay. 
ico, following the example of the 
United States, were determined to become free and independent. 

The people of La Plata were tired of being robbed by the governor 
sen! out by Spain. They started an insurrection in LS11. The people of 
Chili, Peru, Venezuela, and all the other Spanish provinces caught the 

spirit of liberty, and one by 
one declared their indepen- 
dence. Spain could not recon- 
quer them. There was much 
Lighting, but the Spanish were 
defeated. Ought not the 
United States to recognize the 
new republics \ Henry ( 'lay 
became an earnest advocate in 
Congress lor such recognition, 
and made eloquent speeches. 
The patriots in South America 
translated his speeches ami eir- 
" 3HI ' AND - culated them, erected monu- 

ments to his honor, and celebrated his name in patriotic songs. In L822 
the United States recognized them as independent nations. 




1822.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



245 



This is what President Monroe said in his message to Congress: 

•• We should consider any attempt on the part of European powers to 
extend their system to this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and 
safety, . . . and should regard it as a manifestation of unfriendly disposi- 
tion towards the United States." 

This has become known in history as the " Monroe doctrine." It was 
a notice to Europe and to the world that the people of the western hemi- 
sphere — of North and South America — were to choose for themselves 
what form of government they would have; and that any interference on 
the part of any European country would be regarded as a menace to the 
United States; that this western world was to be thenceforth forever set 
apart for a trial of the form of government which William Brewster, 
William Bradford, and the men of the Mayflower inaugurated, which the 
people of the United States 
had developed and adopted 
— a government of the peo- 
ple based on equal rights. 

In 1824 Lafayette, who 
had aided the Americans 
in achieving their Inde- 
pendence, arrived in New 
York, lie had command- 
ed the armies of France 
at the beginning of the 
French Revolution'. When 
the Jacobins came into 
power he fled to Holland, 
where the Austrian sol- 
diers seized him. He had 
been kept in prison Ave 
years. He crossed the 
ocean to see once more 
the land for which he de- 
voted his life and fortune 
— the guest of the nation. He arrived in New York August 15. All the 
city gathered to welcome him; cannon thundered, bells rung, flags waved; 
and when he made his appearance upon the balcony of the City Hall the 
great multitude rent the air with their hurrahs. He had not expected such 
a demonstration, and the tears rolled down his cheeks as he beheld around 
him men who had fought by his side in the great struggle for liberty. 




LAFAVKI TK. 



246 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVI. 



lie travelled to Philadelphia, Haiti more, and Richmond. Congress 

was in session, and voted him $200,000 in money and a township of land. 
He went to North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and 

Louisiana. From New (Means he 
went up the Mississippi to St. Louis; 
thence to Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsyl- 
vania; to New York, then on to Bos- 
ton, Portsmouth, Portland, Concord, 
Burlington, and back to New York. 

It was a great day at Bunker 
Hill, June 17, 1825, when the corner- 
stone of the monument was laid — 
the hill covered with people — all 
the military companies in their 
showy uniforms present; the ves- 
sels in the harbor thundering a 
salute; Daniel Webster delivering 
the oration, forty soldiers who had 
stood in the redoubt and behind the 
rail fence, and Lafayette, around 
him. 

During the year a new frigate 
was built. It was named the Br,(n- 
dywine, and was employed to bear Lafayette to France. President John 
Quinoy Adams bade him an affectionate farewell. Very tender ami touch- 
ing was Lafayette's reply. 

"God bless you, sir," he said, " and all 
who surround us ! God bless the American 
people, each of their States, and the Federal 
Government! Accept this patriotic farewell 
of an overflowing heart. Such will be it- 
last throb when it ceases to beat." 




BUNKER IIII.I. MONUMENT. 



Manufacturing by machinery had begun 
in the United States. England had been 
using machinery for a third of a century, 
and was becoming rich by manufacturing 
goods for the people of other countries. 

The question of a tax or tariff on for- 
eign goods agitated the country. The word tariff' had its origin on the 




JOHN QUIKCX ADAMS. 



1817.] FROM 1817 TO 1832. 217 

other side of the Atlantic. From the point Tarifa, near the Straits of 
Gibraltar, pirate vessels used to dart out upon ships that were sailing 
through the Straits and compel the captains to pay them money for the 
privilege of going through. The pirates assumed to own the Straits; 
and the captains, rather than have a tight, paid them for the priv- 
ilege of going on their way. In the course of years the word came to 
mean a tax or duty imposed by government on articles imported or ex- 
ported. 

Henry Clay believed that it would be a good way to build up manufac- 
tures in the United States to tax cotton and woollen cloth and a great vari- 
ety of goods manufactured in England and other countries, and which the 
people of the United States were beginning to manufacture. Under his 
influence, largely, the "American system," as it was called, was inaugu- 
rated. In 1816 a tariff, or list of taxes, on goods manufactured in other 
countries was established. It was done to encourage and protect the man- 
ufacturers of the United States. The men who were beginning to manu- 
facture had little money, while the manufacturers of Great Britain were 
rich. Money was dear in Ameriica. Men who had to borrow paid ten, 
fifteen, or twenty per cent, for it; in Great Britain the rates were not 
half so great. Labor was dear in the United States, but cheap in Eng- 
land. America was new. The people were obliged to build roads, bridges 
school-houses, and churches. England had the advantage, and could man- 
ufacture clothes cheaper than they could be made in the United States. 
Hence the tariff. 

There were no manufactories in the Southern States, but they were 
springing up all over New England. The tariff made goods dear to the 
planters of South Carolina, who wished to, repeal it. The people of 
New England were thriving. Towns were springing up, water-wheels 
were whirling, spindles humming, shuttles flying; everywhere in the 
Northern States there were signs of thrift and industry. In 1828 Con- 
gress passed a still stronger tariff, which gave great offence to South Caro- 
lina. In 1S29 General Jackson became President. When he was a boy 
he* showed what stuff he was made of by refusing to black the boots of 
a British officer (see "Boys of '76"). During the second war with Great 
Britain and in the wars against the Indians he had shown the country 
how energetic he could be. The time had come when the nation needed 
a fearless man to execute the laws. 

The people of South Carolina and Virginia remembered that Thomas 
Jefferson had written in 1798, resolutions which were passed by the Legis- 
lature of Kentucky, that the Union was only a compact between the 



248 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVI. 



, and thai each State had a right to judge <>f the validity of laws 

passed by ( Jongress. 

South Carolina, under the lead of John C. Calhoun, determined to 

nullify or make void the tar- 
iff so far as that State was 
concerned, and passed a law 
which declared the acts of 
Congress of no account, and 
forbade the custom-house offi- 
cers at Charleston collecting 
any revenue. The Governor 
ordered the troops of the State 
to be ready to support the 
law. 

In 1S32 came a great de- 
bate in the United Slates be- 
tween Senator llavne of South 
Carolina and Daniel Webster 
on nullification. South Caro- 
lina had started upon a course 
which woidd bring civil war — 
the overturning of the Consti- 
tution, breaking up of the nation. Very eloquent were the words of Mr. 

Webster: 

" While the Union lasts we have 

high, exciting, gratifying prospects 

spread out before ns, for us and our 

children. Beyond that I seek not to 

penetrate the veil. God grant that, 

in my day at least, that curtain may 

not rise! God grant that on my 

vision never may be opened what lies 

behind! When my eyes shall be 

turned to behold for the last time the 

sun in heaven, may I not see him 

shining ou the broken and dishonored 

fragments of a once glorious Union; 

on States dissevered, discordant, bel- 
ligerent; on a land rent with civil 

feuds, or drenched, it may be. in fra- danikl m 




JOHN C. C W.IIOIN. 




1829.] 



FROM 1817 TO 1832. 



21!) 



tenial blood! Let their last feeble and lingering- glance rather behold the 
gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the 
earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their 
original lustre — not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, 
bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as ' What is all this 
worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first, and 
Union afterward ;' but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living 
light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over 
the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other senti- 
ment, dear to ev- 
ery true Ameri- 
ican heart — Lib- 
erty and Union, 
now and forever, 
one and insepa- 
rable !" 

The Gov- 
ernor of South 
Carolina issued 
a proclamation. 
The troops of 
the State were 
to be ready to 
march at a moment's notice. The 
proclamation reached Washington. 
President Jackson read it while 
sitting in his easy-chair and smok- 
ing his long- stemmed pipe. He 
finished reading, dashed his pipe 
into the fireplace, and smashed it 
lis eyes flashed. 

" The Union! It must cmd shall he preserved! By the Eternal! 
Send for General Scott /" 

President Jackson little knew how his words would ring through the 
country, firing the hearts of the people — how men who had opposed him 
would become his supporters and friends — how, thirty years later, it would 
be like a fire-bell at night to stir the souls of men. 

United States troops were sent to Fort Moultrie and Castle Pincknev. 
Commander Elliott sailed with a fleet, and" the people of Charleston saw 
the cannon of ships and forts pointed toward the town. Every morning 




IP 



f» 



Webster's place, maksmkield. 
« 

to atoms. He lifted his right hand ; 1 



250 



nriLi>ix<; nii: nation. 



[Chap. XVI 



they beheld the Stars and Stripes flung out from the top-masts, and heard 
the bands playing "Hail, Columbia!" This tii-t attempt at nullification 
was the outgrowth of tlie thistle-seed sown in the resolutions of 1798. "A 
State had risen against the nation, hut the nation, in behalf of constitutional 
liberty, asserted its right and its might to legislate for all the people. 

President Jackson became very popular. The people called him "Old 
Hickory," because he was so unyielding, like the hickory-tree. Whenever 
he travelled, people crowded to see him, throwing up their hats, shouting — 
"hurrah !" the great men of the towns presenting addresses of welcome. 




ADUKKSS TO "OLD HK'kOKV." 



1787-1840.] RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 251 



CHAPTER XVII. 

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 

f"T^O establish an enduring State, to build a nation great and strong, there 
-■-• must be not only the achievement of independence, the clearing away 
of the forest, laying out of farms, building of ships, growth of towns, 
increase of population, but there must be also the development of ideas, 
the exercise of moral and religious forces. Men do not think alike ; well 
for the world that they do not. Otherwise there would be no progress. 

The establishment of common schools in New England, the education 
of the people, promoted free thought. Men began to think for themselves 
in matters of religion. When the Constitution was adopted the men who 
framed it saw that it was the right of every man to believe what he pleased 
in religion ; that he had the right to be protected in his belief and form 
of worship. In New England, during the Colonial period, the meeting- 
houses were built by the towns, and all the people were taxed to support 
the ministers. In Virginia the ministers received their pay in tobacco. 
Congress left each State to settle questions in regard to ministers, and 
churches. One by one the States, from 1800 to 1820, repealed the laws 
which compelled people to support ministers. It was left for each church 
to support itself, pay its own minister, and regulate its own affairs. Men 
gladly do voluntarily what they will not do under compulsion. It was the 
beginning of a new era in the world's history. The people of other lands 
with astonishment beheld the building of a nation without a bishop in any 
way connected with government, voluntarily paying their ministers, and 
erecting their churches. The result was a great quickening of religious 
zeal. Ministers had greater liberty, preached with more fervor. From 
1810 to 1830 was a period of remarkable revivals of religion — resulting 
in the formation of charitable and benevolent societies, and missionary 
organizations. 

When King James determined to have only one form of worship in 
England, and that the Episcopal, William Bradford, William Brewster, 
and the men and women of Scrooby, fled to Holland, and from Holland 



252 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XVIJ 

to America, to worship God in their own way. They would not be Epis- 
copalians. When they lauded at Plymouth they had no minister, but 
the members of the Church came together in a congregation and chose 
William Brewster. Xn bishop consecrated him by the laying on of 
hands, but he preached all the same; and, so far as William Bradford, 
Edward Winslow, and their fellow -pilgrims could see, his ministrations 
were just as acceptable to themselves and to God as if he had been 
ordained by Archbishop Laud. 

The Pilgrims believed that the members of each individual Church 
Bhould ride themselves. They were Congregationalists. The Puritans 
who settled at Boston were members of the Church of England, but 
refused to conform to the rules laid down by the archbishops and bishops, 
and were called IVbn-conformists. When they made America their home, 
and saw that the Pilgrims at Plymouth were ruling themselves in every- 
thing, they too became Congregationalists. 

Roger Williams, who came to Massachusetts in 1030, was a minister of 
the Church of England, but became a Congregationalism He had been 
sprinkled when he was an infant, but thought that he had not been prop- 
erly baptized. As there was no minister to immerse him, it was done by 
Ezekiel Ilolliman, a member of the Church who also had been sprinkled. 
When Mr. Williams had been immersed he in turn immersed Mr. Ilolli- 
man and ten others, and established the first Baptist Church in America. 
Although Baptists, they were Congregationalists in that they ruled them- 
selves, and have become a great and powerful body of Christians. 

When the Reformation, which started in Germany in the time of Mar- 
tin Luther, spread through that country, Switzerland, Holland, and Scot- 
land, the Churches which protested against the authority of the Pope of 
Rome chose elders and presbyters to manage affairs, and became known 
us Presbyterian Churches. The Presbyterian Church of Holland was 
known as the Dutch Reformed Church. 

The burghers of Amsterdam, who sent the Walloons to settle New 
York (see "Old Times in the Colonies"), provided the settlers with a 
minister, the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, who was the first minister of that 
branch of the Presbyterian Church in America. 

AV nen ( 'harles II. came to be King of England, in L660, he determined 
to make the people of Scotland, who were Presbyterians, become Episco- 
palians. They refused — were imprisoned and oppressed, fighting began. 
Men, women, and children were cut down by the British soldiers, and their 
houses destroyed. America offered them a place of refuge. 

Between the years 1670 '80 a company of Scotch Presbyterians settled 



1787-1840.] 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 



253 



near Norfolk, in Virginia ; at Snow Hill and Bladensburg, Maryland ; and 
at Port Royal, in South Carolina. The first Presbyterian minister in the 
United States was Francis Makensie, who began to preach at Norwalk, in 
Virginia, in 16S4. He visited the older Presbyterians, who had settled in 
New Jersey and Philadelphia. 

When Louis NIV. was King of France he sent a great army to ravage 




FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK. 

the beautiful country along the river Rhine, called the Palatinate. He 
conquered so many cities and towns that he could not garrison them all. 
The people were mostly Protestants. What should he do with them? 
His minister, Louvois, was wicked and cruel. The woman whom Louis 
had privately married, Madame de Maintenon, who could wind the King 
round her little finger, was doing penance for the sins of her early years 



254 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XVH 

by being very devout. "Was there any bettor way to gaiD an entrance into 
heaven than by getting rid of heretics ? She joined with Louvois in influ- 
encing the King to exterminate the Protestants. It was done. In 1689 
the general commanding the army of Louis stood in the old tower of 
Mannheim, on the Rhine, and gleefully rubbed his hands when he saw 
great black columns of smoke darkening the sky — north, east, south, and 
west — at every point of the compass — twenty-two cities and villages in 
flames, and one hundred thousand men, women, and children — old men 
with tottering steps, women with babes in their arms — fleeing to the fields 
for safety ; houses, furniture, everything destroyed ; orchards hewn down, 
fruit trees girdled, vineyards trampled — desolation everywhere ; food all 
destroyed ; thousands of hungry, starving people — no one to feed them, 
no one to succor them — the soldiers mocking at their misery ! Down the 
Valley of the Rhine fled the fugitives to And shelter and hospitality among 
the people of Holland. Queen Anne of England pitied them, and sent 
ships across the Channel to transport them to London, where many thou- 
sands were fed, on Blackheath Common. Fifty families were sent to 
Limerick County, in Ireland, where land was given them, and where they 
built once more their humble homes. Three-fourths of a century passed, 
and during the time their descendants had forgotten to be religious; but 
the followers of .John Wesley went among them, preaching and praying; 
and they left off b wearing, fighting, and carousing, and became industrious 
and sober people John Wesley himself went to see them in 175S, and 
wrote this in his journal: "I found no cursing or swearing, no Sabbath- 
breaking, no drunkenness, no ale-house among them. Their diligence had 
turned the land into a garden." 

Time- were hard, and some of them determined to make America 
their home, and came to New York in L760. One of the emigrants was 
Philip Embury, a carpenter, who had been licensed to preach. He lived 
in a little house that sto.nl in Park Place. The emigrants were in a new 
country — in a town of twenty thousand inhabitants. There were taverns 
and ale-houses; sailors and soldiers thronged the streets, cursing and 
swearing. Philip Embury, with no house to preach in, with lew to hear 
him, left oft preaching. The religious fervor of the emigrants waned. 
But there was one godly woman among them Barbara Heck, who, visit- 
ing her cousin, Paul Buckle, found him idling away his time and playing 
cards. She Beized the card- and threw them into the fire. She found 
Philip Embury. 

" Von are responsible for our souls, and Cod will require them at your 
hand-," she -aid. 



787-1840.] 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 



255 



He felt the rebuke, and began to preach once more, in his own house, 
to Barbara Heck and four other women. People passing- along the street 
heard strange sweet music floating out through the windows of the car- 
penter's house. They stopped and listened. Three musicians from the 
King's Regiment went in to see what was going on. Others followed, 
filling the room. Methodism had begun in America. One Sunday an 




BARBARA HECK. 



officer who had lost an eve at Louisburg, who had been wounded in his 
right arm on the Plains of Abraham, came to the meeting, wearing his 
uniform, his sword clanking on the floor — Captain Thomas Webb, who 
had heard John Wesley preach in England, and whose soul was on lire to 
turn men from their wicked ways. Wesley had licensed him to preach. 
He laid his sword <>n the table, and preached so eloquently that great 
crowds came to hear him Barbara [leek, seeing her opportunity, went 



256 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVII 




FIBST METHODIST CHURCH in M.w Viikk. (FROM AN OLD FEINT.) 



ml 



round among tlie people and obtained money enough to build a church. 

The building was sixty feel long and forty-two wide, built of stone — the 

first Methodist church edifice in the 
United States — erected in 170. 

< >ther men began to preach, among 
the number Robert Strawbridg 
Frederick, Maryland, who built a log 
church, twenty-two feet square, with 
a square hole <>n one side for a win 
dow. He was s.i eloquent that peo- 
ple far and near flocked to hear him, 
and he held camp-meetings through 
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
and Virginia. 

In 177" Francis Asbnry came 

STRAWBRIDGI MKKTISG-HOUSE. (FROM AS hi. I. _. ... , 1 

,. l;1N i | from England, landed at rlnladel- 




1787-1840.] 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 



257 



phia, and journeyed through all the country, from Georgia to Massa- 
chusetts, preaching in houses, barns, and in the open air to multitudes 
of people. He inspired other men to preach, sent them out on circuits, 
forming classes and churches. He was made a bishop — the first of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. When the Rev- 
olutionary war was over and the country at peace, he again travelled all 
over it. 

" Where are you from ?" asked one of his hearers in Ohio. 




FRANCIS ASBURY 



" From Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or almost any place 
you can think of," lie replied. 

It is only a little more than one hundred years since the hymn sung 
on a Sunday morning in Philip Embury's house floated out on the sum- 
mer air; but it has echoed over the continent, making the Methodist 
Church one of the mighty moral and religious forces of the century. 

9 



258 



BUILlH.Vi THE NATION. 



[Chap.XVLL 



There were not many people in the Colonies when the Revolution 
began who attended the Episcopal Church, and there were fewer when it 
closed. The royal governors during the Colonial times were all Episco- 




ikimi \ CHUBCH, NEW vm;k, 1,71 



palians, and did what they could to build up that Church. The Episcopal 
ministers sided with the King. They were regarded as Tories, and the 
men who were fighting for freedom would not listen to their preach- 
ing. When the war was over, and the United States independent, the 
Prayer-book had to be altered. The King of England might need pray- 
ing for, but he was no longer ruler of the United States. There was no 
bishop in America. No minister could be ordained to preach unless con- 
secrated by a bishop. He must be consecrated to keep, as is claimed, an 



1787-1840.] 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 



259 



unbroken line of consecration back to the Apostle Peter. To complete 
the chain, according to the belief of the Episcopalians, the Rev. Samuel 
Seabury, of Connecticut, crossed the ocean in 1784, and was consecrated 
at Aberdeen, Scotland, by three Scottish bishops. But the Scottish bishops 
had refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary when they 
became King and Queen of England, and the question arose whether 
Mr. Seabury was or was not a bishop. To make all sure — to keep the 
chain back to Peter unbroken — William White, of Pennsylvania, and 
Samuel Provoost, of New York, in 1782 went to England, and were con- 
secrated in the archbishop's parlor at Lambeth; and the Episcopal Church 
took its place among the other religious bodies of this country. 

The Rev. John Kel- 
ly, of London, in 1750, 
believed that all men, 
good and bad, would 
finally be saved from 
sin. He was the first 
minister in England to 
preach the doctrine. 
Mr. Murray, who had 
been listening to the 
preaching of John Wes- 
ley, accepted Mr. Kel- 
ly's belief. 

In 1770, when the 
country was aflame for 
liberty and indepen- 
dence, he came to the 
Colonies, and formed 
a Church in Gloucester 
in 1779— the first Uni- 
versalist Church in the 
country and the begin- 
ning of the Universal- 
ist denomination. 

Through all the years of the Christian era there have been men who 
believed that there was a unity between the Father, Son, and Eloly Spirit, 
but that they were not a trinity. . In 1785 the Church worshipping in King's 
Chapel, Boston, struck out from its liturgy all reference to the Trinity, and 
thus became a Unitarian Church. In 1812 Mr. Belsham, of London, wrote 




WILLIAM KI.I.KKY 



260 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap XVII 



an article, which was republished in Boston in 1815, which stated that manj' 
of the churches in New England were at heart Unitarian. A great con- 
trovers}" arose, not only as to what people ought or ought not to believe, 
but as to the ownership of churches. There were hot discussion-, angrj 

sermons, suits in courts 
breaking up of churchec 
— one hundred and tii'rv 
in Massachusetts, fifteen 
in Maine, and nineteen 
in New Hampshire be- 
coming Unitarian Con- 
gregationalists. One of 
the most prominent Uni- 
tarian ministers was Wil- 
liam Ellery ( 'banning, 
pastor of the church in 
Federal Street, Boston — 
a man of delightful spirit, 
beloved and reverenced 
by everybody. 

Other religious bod- 
ies came into existence, 
through the wise provi- 
sion in the Constitution 
that guarantees freedom 
of opinion to every indi- 
vidual. Soon after its 
adoption moral forces unknown in past ages began to mould and fashion 
the moral and religious life of the nation. 




ROBERT RAIKKS. 



Robert Raikes, of England, in 1781, seeing how the working -people 

spent Sunday in drinking rum, playing games, cursing, swearing, and fight- 
3tablished a school on Sunday, teaching them to read and write. In 
L810 Joanna Prince was teaching a week-day school, in her own house, 
in Beverly, Massachusetts. Hannah Hill assisted her. A thought came 
to her to have the children, whose fathers were on the sea catching fish 
off the Banks of Newfoundland, recite verses from the Bible on Sunday. 

The children were pleased with the idea, and came to her home on 
Sunday afternoon, and recited verses and hymns. It was the first Sunday- 
school in America established solely for religious teaching. People in 



1787-1840. J 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 



261 




JOANNA PRINCE S SCHOOL. 



other towns heard what Joanna Prince and Hannah Ilill were doing, and 
formed schools. It was a new idea. Some of the ministers and deacons, 
and the old gray-haired men, shook their heads. They were commanded 
to keep the Sabbath-day holy: would it not be breaking the command 
to teach a school? Even though the children recited verses from the 
Bible, would they not be throwing stones at the squirrels and birds 
and playing tag in going or coming? A church in New Hampshire, 
to make sure that there would be no unseemly conduct, passed this vote: 
" None except those of good moral character shall be admitted to the 
school." 

Many good men were greatly disturbed when the schools were estab- 



262 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVIL 

Liehed, fearing that it would lead to no end of evil. The mustard-seed 
of 181*' has become a wide-spreading tree, overshadowing all the land — 
the- Bible the one text-book, its precepts the rule of life. 

The year before Joanna Prince and Hannah Hill started the first Snn- 
dav-school nine of the Congregational ministers of New Hampshire met 
at the house of the Rev. Samuel Wood, of Boscawen — in the room where 
Daniel Webster, when fitting for college, recited his lessons. They saw 
manv people who had no Bibles- — who were too pom- to buy one or 







WILLIAMSTOWK. 



had not the inclination; that there were lew instructive or entertaining 
books for children. They accordingly took measures to form, not only 
a society for a systematic distribution of Bibles, but of religious books 
and tracts. They voted to purchase and distribute four thousand copies 
of a pamphlet entitled "A Child's Memorial; or, the Happy Death of 
Dinah Doudney." It was an account of the happy life and death of a 
little girl in England. So far as known it was the first movement on this 
continent for the distribution of religious tract-. 



1787-1840.] 



RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 



265 



Then came the formation of societies — the American Bible Society, in 
1816, which has translated the Bible into nearly all languages; the forma- 
tion of the American Tract Society, which has printed many millions of 
books and tracts, and distributed them broadcast over the land. 

On a summer afternoon, in 1806, Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, 
Francis L. Robbins, Ilarvy Loomis, and Bergan Green, students of Williams 
College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, went out for a walk. A black cloud 
was rising, the lightning flashing, the thunder rolling; and when the rain 
came they ran to a hay-stack and curled down under it for shelter. They 
were studying geography, and were thinking of becoming ministers. They 
talked about the people in Asia who w T ere worshipping idols. 

" We can carry the Gospel to them," said Mr. Mills. 

"That is so; we can — it is our duty," said all but one, who doubted 
if any great good could be done in that direction. 

They sung a hymn and joined in prayer. They were young, just be 
yond boyhood ; they were poor, working their way, as best they could, 
through college ; they had very little influence, but a great idea had come 
to them, one of the greatest that can take possession of the soul — the giv- 
ing of a Christian civilization to one thousand millions of the human race! 




COLLEGE AND LIBRARY, WILLIAMSTOWN. 



266 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XVII 

Not a selling, but a giving. What had they to give? Only themselves. 
They could be of little account; but the truth, the Gospel, the good news 
f Q oc j — that He was a father, Jesus Christ their Saviour and best friend — 
they believed that such teaching would lift men from their degradation, 
civilize, Christianize them, and secure their happiness in this life and in 
the life eternal. They formed a missionary society in the college, went to 
other colleges to talk it over with other students, arousing enthusiasm for 
the -rand idea — resulting in the formation of the American Board of For- 
eign Missions, the first great missionary society in the United States, which 
has sent out many hundred men and women, who have established schools, 
gathered churches, giving a Christian civilization to hundreds of thousands 
in heathen lands. 

Music has been classed as one of the line or liberal arts; but it has 
also been a religious force in the history of our country. 

When the Pilgrims came to this Western World they brought with 
them a copy of the Psalms of David, paraphrased by Ainsworth, which 
was their only hymn-book. In King James's version of the Bible the first 
and second verses of the first Psalm are thus given : 

" 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the 
way of Binners, nor sittetta in the seat of the scornful. 

'••J. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and 
night." 

In the book from which the Pilgrims sung it read: 

"1. <» blessed that doth not "2. But Betteth in Jehovah's law 

In wicked counsell walk; His pleasureful delight; 

Nor stand in sinner's way, And in his law doth meditate 

\,„ s \\ i n 3e ai of Bcornfull folk. By day and eke by night." 

In 1640 the Bay State Psalm-book was printed at Cambridge, on the 
first printing-press set up in the Colonies. The one hundred and thirty- 
third Psalm was thus arranged : 

•■ How g 1 and sweet to see 

lt'< for brethren to dwel 
Together in unitee : 

" It'.- like choice oyle that fell 
The bead upon ; 
That down did flow, 
The beard unto, 
Beard of A.ron, 
The Bkirts of his garment, 

Thai unto them went down." 



1787-1840.] RELIGIOUS AND MORAL FORCES. 269 

The Pilgrims and Puritans had very few tunes — not more than eight 
or ten — and when the seventeenth century closed the number in use did 
not exceed thirty. The people sung by rote. Their music could not have 
been very melodious, according to the Rev. Mr. Walters, who preached a 
sermon on music. 

"Singing:," he said, "sounds like five hundred different tunes roared 
out at the same time. The singers are often two words apart, producing 
noises so hideous and disorderly as is bad beyond expression. The notes 
are so prolonged that I myself have twice in one note paused to take 
breath." 

Mr. Walters, the Rev. Mr. Tufts, and a few ministers attempted to bring 
about a reform in singing. They wanted new tunes, and wished the sing- 
ing to be improved. The young people desired reform ; the old people 
opposed it. Mr. Tufts published a music-book, with rules and names for 
the notes fa, sol, la. The book contained twenty-eight tunes. It created 
a great discussion and commotion. The old ministers preached against 
the innovation. 

" There are so many tunes," said one minister, " that the people never 
can learn them. The new way of singing is popish. The notes fa, sol, la 
are blasphemous. The old way is good enough. The new way will re- 
quire a great deal of time to learn the rules. It will make the young 
people disorderly. If they go to singing -school they will be having 
frolics." 

The new method made its way notwithstanding the objections. In 
1764 Josiah Flagg, of Boston, published a book containing one hundred 
and sixteen tunes and two anthems — the first book printed in America 
with music in four parts. In 1770 Mr. Billing.- published a book which 
contained some of his own tunes, which became very popular. 

Before the Revolution the hymns were "deaconed" — the deacon of the 
church standing in front of the pulpit, reading a line, the congregation 
singing it, then reading another, and so on through the hymn. 

When the Revolution was over, when no more was heard the drum- 
beat calling the people to arms, the singing-master appeared. Delightful 
the evenings in the school -houses, where the young men and maidens 
learned to beat time, read the notes, the bass, treble, tenor, and counter, 
successively taking up their parts in the fuguing tunes of the period, 
and then on Sunday, standing in the singers' seats, with a bass-viol to 
keep them company, making music that thrilled and delighted the con- 
gregation ! 

There was great opposition to the use of viols and violins in the church. 



270 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XVII 

" A violin is the devil's instrument," said one minister. 

As the years passed by good men began to see that music and musical 
instruments should have an exalted place in religious service, and not only 
viols and violins, but tlutes, bugles, horns, clarinets, bassoons, and trom- 
bones began to be used, and a higher class of music — tunes composed by 
Handel, Haydn, and Mozart — the old fuguing compositions of Billings, 
Ilolden, Reed, and Swan disappearing about 1830. Then came songs for 
children — the introduction of music into the Sunday-schools, and still later 
into the common-schools, making music a great moral and religious force 
in the building of the nation. 



1787-1840.] PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 27] 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 

AWAY back in the centuries an old alchemist, who was trying to 
find out how to make gold, discovered instead how to distil alco- 
hol. In the course of time men learned to distil rum, gin, brandy, and 
whiskey. 

In the year 1700 some Boston merchants, visiting the West Indies, 
saw that the sugar-makers were throwing away the molasses and sirup 
that dripped from the sugar. The merchants knew that rum could be 
distilled from molasses, and saw that there was a chance to make money. 
They shipped the drippings to Boston, built a distillery, and began the 
manufacture of New England rnm. Everybody drank intoxicating drinks 
— ministers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, farmers, men, women, and chil- 
dren. The rich merchants in the cities had mahogany sideboards and 
finely-cut glass decanters. Well-to-do farmers kept an array of jugs ami 
bottles in their corner cupboards, and in their cellars casks of cider and 
cherry-rum. Upon rising in the morning a glass of licpior must be taken 
to give an appetite for breakfast. At eleven o'clock the merchant in his 
counting-room, the blacksmith at his forge, the mower in the hay-field, took 
a dram to give them strength till the ringing of the bell or the sounding 
of the horn for dinner. In mid-afternoon they drank again. AVhen work 
for the day was done, before going to bed they quaffed another glass. It 
was the daily routine of drinking in well-regulated and temperate fami- 
lies. Hospitalities began with drinking. "What will you take?" was 
the question of host to visitor. Not to accept the proffered hospitality 
was disrespectful. Was there a raising of a meeting-house, there must 
be hospitality for all the parish — no lack of liquor; and when the last 
timber was in its place a bottle of rum must be broken upon the ridge- 
pole. In winter men drank to keep themselves warm ; in summer, to 
keep themselves cool ; on rainy days, to keep out the wet ; on dry days, 
to keep the body in moisture. Friends, meeting or parting, drank to 
perpetuate their friendship. Hnskers around the corn -stack, workmen 



272 



BUILDING 11 1 1; NATION. 



[(MAP. Will. 



in the Held, master and apprentice in the shop, passed the brown ju<^ from 
lip to lip. The lawyer drank before writing his brief or pleading at the 
bar; the minister, while preparing his sermon or before preaching it frotr 




- 



■ 



nil MORNING DRAM. 



the pulpit-. At weddings bridegroom, bride, groomsman, and guest quaffed 
sparkling wines. At funerals minister, mourner, friend, neighbor, all ex- 



1787-1840.] 



PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 



273 



cept the corpse, drank of the bountiful supply of liquors always provided. 
Not to drink was disrespectful to living and dead, and depriving them- 
selves of comfort and consolation. 

In every community there were blear-eyed men with bloated or hag- 
gard faces; weeping women, starving children. On the piazza of every 
way -side inn were seedy loungers, running up scores on the landlord's 
books, or waiting to accept the invitation of neighbors or travellers to 
" take a drink." In every town or village were groggeries, where men 




WAITING FOR A JIKINK. 



and boys idled their time away, spending their little earnings in drink or 
demoralizing games. 

Lawyers found employment in making out mortgages or writing de- 
crees of foreclosure. Sheriffs became rich through serving writs. Men, 
once honored and respected, who had started in life with high hopes and 
grand resolves, were reeling through the streets, or found themselves and 
families in the poor-house. In the jails were those who, in drunken frenzy, 
murdered loving wife, prattling child, or dearest friend. 

The manufacture and sale of rum became a mighty traffic. It was 



274 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XVIII. 



the great staple in every country store — sold by the gallon, quart, pint, or 
gill. It was so cheap that everybody could buy it. In 1775 (when the 
lie volution began), twenty thousand hogsheads were manufactured in New 
England. In the closing year of the second war with England more than 
fifty million gallons were distilled in the United States; farmers could sell 
their rye and corn at the distillery and obtain their rum cheap, and they 
were regarded as blessings. 

In 180S the citizens of Moreau, New York, appalled at the tide of 
demoralization arising from the drinking of rum, formed a society to 




IDLING TIIKIU TIME AW AT. 



discourage excessive drinking-- agreeing not to drink rum every daw but 
only "ii special occasions: at public dinners, or when they did not feel 
well. It was the lir-t temperance society organized in the country. 

In 1813 some ministers in Boston formed a society lor the suppression 
of intemperance; but nothing came of it, and the distilling and drinking 
went on. There was no abatement of misery and woe. Jails became 
crowded with criminals, alms-houses with paupers, and in the cemeteries 
the turf was heaped on those who. in the prime of life, had gone down to 
drunkards' graves. 



1787-1840.] PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 275 

The time for reform came. Thinking men saw the demoralization, and 
traced it to the universal use of rum. It was seen that drunkenness was 
a crime of the individual against himself and against society. Ministers 
preached in favor of temperance. Societies were formed — the members 
pledging themselves to abstain from drinking. Churches passed resolu- 
tions that the daily and habitual use of distilled liquors was inconsistent 
with upright Christian character. Some of the church -members, how- 
ever, were greatly offended at such action, and said that it took away 
their liberty. The reform began in 1830. Many men left off drinking, 
but distilleries still flourished. 

George B. Cheever was a young minister in Salem, Massachusetts. 
His soul was stirred when he looked out from his study window and saw 
the smoke rolling up from the tall chimneys of four distilleries, which 
manufactured six hundred thousand gallons of rum every year. In the 
harbor were vessels filled with hogsheads of molasses, brought from the 
West Indies to be distilled, and other vessels freighted with rum for 
Africa. He reflected that out of that rum would come battles, capture 
of prisoners, and their sale to negro traders. He saw long lines of teams 
loading at the doors of the distilleries, and moving away carrying rum to 
all the country towns. From his study window he beheld the alms- 
houses crowded with paupers. One of the distilleries w r as owned by a 
Mr. Stone, one of whose workmen, while intoxicated, was scalded to death 
in a vat of hot rum. Mr. Stone was a good man. He was kind to the 
poor, deacon of one of the churches, treasurer of a Bible Society, and 
kept Bibles for sale in his counting-room, in one corner of his distillery. 
Mr. Cheever saw how inconsistent it was to combine the profession of 
religious principles with the soul-destroying traffic in liquor. His soul 
was on lire. He had a dream — " which was not all a dream " — about a 
distillery owned by Deacon Giles. He wrote it out and published it in a 
newspaper. This was what he dreamed : 

"Deacon Giles was a man who loved money, and was never troubled with tenderness of con- 
science. His father and his grandfather before him had been distillers, and the same occupation 
had come to him as an heirloom in the family. The still-house was black with age, as well as with 
the smoke of furnaces that never went out. Its owner was treasurer of a Bible Society, and he 
had a little counting-room in one corner of the distillery, where he sold Bibles. 

"Deacon Giles worked on the Sabbath. Be would not sutler the fires of the distillery to go 
out. One Saturday afternoon bis workmen bad quarrelled, and all went off in anger. He was in 
much perplexity for want of bands to do the work of the devil on the Lord's day. In the dusk 
of the evening a gang of singular-looking fellows entered the door of the distillery. Their dress 
was wild and uncouth, their eyes glared strangely. They offered to work for the Deacon; and he, 
on his part, was overjoyed, for be thought within himself that, as they bad probably been turned 
oui of employment elsewhere, he could engage them on bis own terms. 



27»i 



BllLDlNi; THE NATION. 



[Chap. Will. 




MAKING THE BARGAIN. (COFIF.O FROM A CUT IN THE PAMPHLET.) 



"He made them his accustomed offer — as much rum every day, when work was done, as they 

coul. I drink; hut they would not take it. Some of them broke out ami told him thai they had 
enough of hot things where they rami' from without drinking damnation in the distillery. And 
when they said that it seei 1 to the Deacon as if their breath burned blue; hut he was nol cer- 
tain, ami dd not tell whal to make >d' it. Then he offered them a pittance of money ; but they 

sit up such a laugh that he though! that the roof of the building would fall in. They demanded 

a sum which the Deacon said he could not give, and would not, to the hest set of work n that 

ever lived, much less to such piratical-looking scape-jails as they. Finally, he said he would give 
half what thej asked, if they would take two-thirds of that in Bibles. When he mentioned the 
word Bibles they all looked toward the door, and made a step backward, and the Deacon thought 
th- \ trembled; hut whether it was with anger or delirium tremens, or something else, he could 
no! tell. However, they winked and made Bigns to each other; and then one of them, who seemed 
to lie the head man, agreed with the Deacon that, if he would let them work by night instead of 
day, they would stay with him awhile, and work on his own terms. To this he agreed, and they 
immediately went to work. 

"The Deacon had a fresh cargo of molasses to he worked up, and a great many hogsheads 

then in from his country customers to lie filled with liquor. When he went home lie locked the 
doors, h aving the distillery to his new workmen. As soon a- 1m- w as -one you would have I 
that one of 1 1 1. ■ chambers of hell had been transported to earth, with all its inmates. The distil- 
lery glowed with fires that burned hotter than ever before; and the figures of the demons passing 
to and fro, and leaping and yelling in the midst of their work, made it look like the entrance to tin 
bottomless pit. 



1787-1 840.] 



PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 



277 



" Some of them sat astride the rafters, over the heads of the others, and amused themselves 
with blowing flames out of their mouths. The work of distilling seemed play to them, and they 
carried it on with supernatural rapidity. It was hot enough to have boiled the molasses in any 
part of the distillery ; but they did not seem to mind it at all. Some lifted the hogsheads as easily 
as you would raise a teacup, and turned their contents into the proper receptacles ; some scummed 
the boiling liquids; some with huge ladles dipped the smoking fluids from the-different vats, and, 
raising it high in the air, seemed to take great delight in watching the fiery stream as they spouted 
it back again; some drafted the distilled liquor into empty casks and hogsheads; some stirred the 
fires ; all were boisterous and horridly profane. 

" I gathered from their talk that they were going to play a trick upon the Deacon, that should 
cure him of offering rum and Bibles to his workmen. They were going to write certain inscrip- 
tions on all his rum casks, that should remain invisible until they were sold by the Deacon, but 
should flame out in characters of fire as soon as they were broached by his retailers, or exposed 
for the use of the drunkards. When they had filled a few casks with liquor, one oi them took a 
great coal of fire, and, having quenched it in a mixture of rum and molasses, proceeded to write, 
apparently by way of experiment, upon the heads of the different vessels. Just as it was dawn 
they left off work and vanished together. 

"In the evening the men came again, and the Deacon locked them in by themselves, and they 
went to work. They finished all his molasses, and filled all his rum barrels and kegs and hogs- 
heads with liquor, and marked them all, as on the preceding night, with invisible inscriptions. 
Most of the titles ran thus : 

" ' Consumption Sold Here. Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery. 1 ' Insanity and Murder. In- 
quire at Deacon Giles's Distillery.' 'Delirium Tremens. Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery.' 

" Many of the casks had on them inscriptions like the following: 

'"Distilled Death and Liquid Damnation.' 'The Elixir of Hell for the Bodies of Those whose 
Souls are Coming There.' 




THE DEMONS IN THE DISTILLERY. (COPIED FROM A CUT IN THE PAMPHLET.) 



27S 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap.XVIIL 




BURSTING OCT OF THE FLAMES. (COPIED FROM A COT IN THE PAMPHLET.) 



"Some of the demons had even taken sentences from the Scriptures and marked the hogsheads 
thus : 

" ■ Who hath Woe? [nquire al Deacon Gileses Distillery.' ' Who hath Redness of Eyes? In- 
quire at Deacon Giles's Distillery.' 

" All these inscriptions burned, when visible, n ' still and awful red.' 

" In the morning the workmen vanished as before, just as it was dawn ; but in the dusk of the 
evening they came again, and told the Deacon it was against their principles to take any wages Foi 

work done between Saturday night and Monday i -ning, and as they could not stay with him any 

longer, he was well to what they had .lone. The Deacon was very urgent to have them ,e. 

main, ami offered to hire them for the season at any wages; but they would not. So he thanked 

them, and they went away, ami he Saw them no more. 

" Iii the course of the week most of the casks were sent into the country, and duly hoisted on 
their stoops, in conspicuous situations, in the taverns and groceries and rum-shops. But no sooner 
had the firsl glass been drawn from any of them than the invisible inscription flamed out on the 

cask-head to every beholder: 'Consumption Sold Here. Delirium Tre as, Damnation, and Hell. 

The drunkards were terrified from the dram-shops; the bar-rooms were emptied of their 
customers; but in their place a gaping crowd filled every -lore that possessed a cask of the Dea- 
con's devil-distilled liquor, to wonder and he affrighted at the spectacle; for no art could efface the 
inscription. 

"The rum-sellers, and grOCers, and tavern-keepers were full of fury. They loaded their teams 

with the accursed liquor, and drove it back to the distillery. All around and before the door of 
the Deacon'- establishment the returned casks were piled one upon another, and it seemed as if 



1787-1*40.] 



PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 



27y 



the inscriptions burned brighter than ever — Consumption, Damnation, Death, and Hell mingled to- 
gether in frightful confusion ; and in equal prominence, in every case, flamed out the direction, 
'Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery.' 

"The Deacon had to turn a vast quantity of liquor into the streets, and burn up the hogsheads, 
and his distillery has smelled of brimstone ever since; but he would not give up the trade. He 
cunics it on still, and every time I see his advertisement, 'Inquire at Amos Giles's Distillery,' I think 
I see Hell and Damnation, and he the proprietor." 




BEINGING HACK THE RUM. (COPIED FROM A CUT IN THE PAMPHLET.) 



The newspapers all over the country published the dream. Mr. Stone 
was greatly offended at Mr. Cheever, who was arrested for publishing- a 
libel. Everybody talked about the dream. Men saw what they never 
before had seen — how terrible the woe that came from so much drinking. 
The ablest lawyers of Massachusetts were employed to prosecute and de- 
fend. The Court said it was a libel, and then Mr. Cheever was put in jail, 
which made it all the worse for Mr. Stone and those who owned distilleries. 

But his dream, with its illustrations, was sown broadcast over the land. 
The temperance cause, which had begun to die out, went on with increased 
vigor. Societies were formed, public sentiment aroused, distillery fires 
ceased to blaze ; there were fewer paupers, less misery and woe. It may 



280 P.l ■ I LDING THE NATION. [Chap. XVIII 

be questioned whether any other pamphlet published in the United States 
has been so far-reaching in its influence as that describing Deacon Giles's 

distillery. 

How should men be kept from drinking rum? Massachusetts passed 
a law forbidding the sale of less than fifteen gallons of liquor — thinking 
that, as nobody could drink fifteen gallons at once, and as few men would 
want to purchase that amount, it would put an end to the sale. Men 
found a way, however, to get liquor notwithstanding the law. At a cat- 
tle-show a man advertised that in a tent by itself was a most wonderful 
pig — with black, red, green, and yellow stripes around its body. People 
paid ten cents to see it. Crowds went in, and came out smacking their 
lips. They had seen the painted pig, and had a drink into the bargain. 

John Pierpont was minister of the Hollis Street Church, Boston, which 
had a cellar under it, which was rented to a distiller for the storage of 
rum. Mr. Pierpont drank cold water, and preached against rum-selling, 
which made some of his church-members very angry. They arraigned him 
before an ecclesiastical council, and compelled him to leave the pulpit. 

Somebody published the following lines about the Hollis Street Church 
and the rum in the cellar: 

"There's a spirit above, 
And a spirit below ; 
A spirit of love, 

Ami a spirit of woe j 
The spirit above is the Spirit Divine, 
The spirit below is the spirit of wine." 

While the members of the Hollis Street Church were prosecuting 
their pa-tor for his preaching on temperance a scene of a different char- 
acter was transpiring in Baltimore. 

In the bar-room of a tavern, when work for the day was done, a tailor, 
carpenter, coach-maker, silver-plater, and two blacksmiths met one even- 
ing in 1840, as they were accustomed to meet, to drink their grog. 

"There is a temperance-meeting close by; let us go and hear what 
they will have to say," said one. 

•• Agreed." 

Four of them went, and when it wa> over came back to the tavern to 
take another glass of rum. 

"Temperance is a good thing." said one. 

•'Ministers and temperance people are hypocrites," said the landlord. 

'Oh, yes! you cry them down because you want to sell liquor," James 
Mc< Jnrly, the coach-maker, replied. 



1787-1840.] 



PROGRESS OF TEMPERANCE. 



281 



"I'll tell you what, boys: let us form a temperance society, and make 
Bill Mitchell president," said George Steer, one of the blacksmiths. 
"Ha! ha! ha! Agreed." 
They laughed at the joke ; but, as they thought it over, the idea did 




JOHN PIKRPONT. 



not seem to be a joke, but something worth thinking about in earnest. 
Saturday night came. They met once more in the bar-room, not to drink, 
but to talk over a plan for a total abstinence society. 

'•We do pledge ourselves as gentlemen that we will not drink any 
spirituous or malt liquor, wine, or cider," was the agreement to which they 
signed their names. The Washingtonian Temperance Society was formed, 
and each member agreed to bring a friend to the next meeting. 

"See here: if you ain't going to drink, you can't stay here," said the 
landlord's wife, and the society went to a carpenter's shop. Each man 
brought a drunkard to the next meeting. The men who had been down 
were helping their friends who were down. It was a new evangel, which 
swept over the land, purifying, ennobling — the incoming of a far-reaching 
and enduring moral power. 



282 BUILDING THE NATION. [.Chap. XIX. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR. 

IT is natural for men to hate those whom they have wronged. When 
the planters of Virginia, in 1619, bought their first slaves (see "Old 
Times in the Colonies"); when the people of Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
New York, and all the other Colonies began to purchase slaves stolen 
from Africa, they began a great wrong, out of which, as time went on, 
came throughout the Northern States an intense prejudice against free 
negroes, and a desire to get them out of the country ; for it is also nat- 
ural in men to endeavor to get rid of those whom they have injured. . 

In 1773 the Rev. Samuel Hopkins and the Rev. Ezra Staples, of New- 
port, Rhode Island, knowing that the slave-trade was a horrible business, 
conceived the idea of sending free negroes to Africa, to plant colonies 
along the coast, which they thought would put an end to the traffic. 

Nothing came of it, however, till 1816, when Samuel J. Mills, the 
warm-hearted man who had helped form the American Missionary 
Society at Williamstown, Massachusetts; Francis S. Key, who wrote the 
"Star-spangled Banner;" R. 13. Finley, of New Jersey, a philanthropist; 
and others, formed the American Colonization Society. They believed 
that colored men never could be of any account in the United States, 
because of a prejudice against them. In the dictionary we have this 
definition of prejudice: "An unreasoning predilection for or against 
anything." 

A colored person was called a "nigger." Ee had no rights. Ne- 
groes fought under General Washington: they were soldiers in the war 
of 1812 -'15. Negroes stood behind the breastworks at New Orleans, 
under General Jackson; but the nation had accorded them no rights 
under the Constitution. Society gave them no privileges equal to those 
of white men. A colored man might be intelligent. Well-behaved, cour- 
teous — a gentleman in deportment — but he must do menial service. His 
place was in the stable, kitchen, doing drudgery. It' he wanted to travel 
he must go on foot. He could not ride on a stage unless on the top 



1787-1840.] PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR. 283 

or on the rack behind with the trunks, even though he paid full fare. Col- 
ored people were regarded as baggage. In the meeting-house their place 
was in the gallery, in the " nigger pew." Though members of the church, 
they could not sit down-stairs with the congregation. At communion they 
must wait till the white members had taken the bread and wine. 

In the common-school there was no seat for a colored boy or girl. Mis- 
sionaries were making their way to India to teach the heathen. Indian 
boys and girls were being gathered into schools, but there was no school- 
master for the colored people. The men who founded the Colonization 
Society thought that by sending them to Africa the whole of that dark 
continent would in time be civilized and Christianized. They did not see 
that they themselves needed Christianizing. 

"We do not intend to interfere with slavery; we shall send only free 
negroes," they said. 

The Rev. Mr. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess sailed to Africa, and selected 
a place for a settlement. Agents travelled through the country, preaching 
on Sunday of the glorious work, picturing the redemption of the heathen 
tribes from barbarism through the civilizing influences of the free col- 
ored people who were to be sent there. Church -members contributed 
liberally of their money. Congress appropriated $100,000; and in 1820 
thirty-eight colored people emigrated to Africa, and made a settlement at 
Liberia. 

Men were thinking as never before in regard to human rights. Eng- 
land had eight hundred thousand slaves in the West Indies. Large-hearted 
men — Wilberforce, Clarkson, Gurney, in England, and Daniel O'Connell, 
in Ireland — were doing what they could to induce Parliament to emanci- 
pate them. 

When the Constitution was adopted, in 1787, it was agreed that the 
slave-trade should cease in 1808. It was supposed that slavery in the 
Southern States would die out, as it had in the Northern ; but the men 
who framed the Constitution did -not see what would come of James Har- 
greaves and Richard Arkwriglit's inventions in spinning, and of Watts's 
steam-engine — that England would set millions of spindles whirling; 
that no end of cotton would be wanted. They did not see that the earth, 
turning on its axis from west to east, creating a current at the equator, 
flowing westward, striking against the coast of Brazil, streaming into the 
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, heated and evaporated by the sun, 
would make the Gulf a steaming caldron ; that the soft south winds, 
wafting the warm vapor inland, would make the whole coast, hundreds of 
miles inland— from North Carolina to Mexico— the great cotton-prod uc 



2S4 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XIX. 



! Ill ■ "V -»»■ *Hw» i -*" '|M*T 



.1 



..___ i . ■■!' tv:i *V, ,ii.!!lt.:.i'.,iiil.,ii.,.,L,;.i...,i,. l ^; i,,.,... .,, |K i... 




ing area of the 
world ; that there 
the snow-white fibre 
would be soft as silk, 
and delicate as the finest 
gossamer; that, in conse- 
quence, < )ld England and New 
England would become hives of indus- 
try : thai millions of spindles would 
be whirling and myriads of shuttles 
flying to supply the world with cloth- 
that slavery, instead of dying out, would become more firmly in- 
trenched—that it would become a mighty political and social force, domi- 
nating one-half of the States, and making its influence felt in commerce, 



Till'. RISING l'"\\ ER. 



1787-1840.] 



PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR. 



285 




POOR WHITE PEOPLE OF THE SOU I'll. 



in the halls of legislation, in courts of justice, in churches, and every walk 
of life. 

Slavery was having a great effect upon the white people of the South- 
ern States — making class distinctions. The rich were growing richer, the 
poor poorer. Labor was a sign of inferiority. The poor white people 
became more degraded. They were called "crackers," "clay-eaters," and 

other opprobrious names. The negroes 
called them " poor white trash," because 
they were low down, living in miserable 
cabins, with no ambition to better their 
condition. 

In 1818 the Presbyterian Assembly of 
the United States passed a resolution de- 
claring that " the enslaving of one part of 
the human race is a gross violation of the 
most sacred rights of man, inconsistent 
with the laws of God." 

Benjamin Lundy, of a mild, benevo- 
lent spirit, who hated injustice, travelled 




WILLIAM LLOYD HARRISON. 



286 



iuildim; the nation. 



[Chap. MX. 



through the country with a set of types, printing and distributing a 
paper which he named the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Be 

established his paper in Baltimore in 1829. A young man bom in New- 
buryport, Massachusetts (William Lloyd Garrison), helped him set types. 
The -hip Frances, owned in Newbury port, came to Baltimore, took a 
cargo of slaves, and sailed for New Orleans. He had been giving ad- 
dresses in behalf of the Colonization Society; he saw that, although the 




i. IRRISON S BIRTHPLACK. 



open traffic in slaves with Africa was closed, the domestic trade was in full 
vigor, with all its woe. In the next number of the Genius of Universal 
Emancipation there was an article denouncing the domestic slave-trade. 
Soon after the young printer, with the sheriffs hand upon his shoulder, 
was brought into court, where a jury found him guilty of inciting the 
slave- to insurrection, and the champion of right was marched off to jail. 

Men whose souls are on fire with a great resolve laugh at belts and 
bars. He wrote this upon the walls of his cell: 

" Ilii'li walls and huge the body mny confine, 
Ami iron gates obstruct the prisoner's gaze; 
And massive bolts may baffle his designs, 
And watchful keepers eye his devious ways; 



1787-1840 J PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR. 287 

Yet scorns the immortal mind this base control! 

No chain can bind it, and no cell enclose. 
Swifter than light it flies from pole to pole, 

And in a flash from earth to heaven it goes. 
It leaps from mount to mount. From vale to vale 

It wanders, plucking honeyed fruits and flowers. 
It visits home to hear the fireside tale, 

Or in sweet converse pass the joyous hours. 
Tis up before the sun, roaming afar, 
And in its watches wearies every star:" 

A generous -hearted man, Arthur Tappan, of New York, heard that 
the printer was in prison, paid his fine, and he was set at liberty. 

During his seven weeks' imprisonment the printer made a discovery — 
that the prejudice against colored people was far greater in the Northern 
than in the Southern States. The conviction came that slavery would 
never die of itself; that emancipation could not be gradual, but must be, 
whenever it came, an immediate act— all the slaves liberated at once. He 
saw that the Colonization Society, instead of helping on emancipation, was 
really riveting the manacles upon the slaves more firmly. By removing 
the free negroes the slaves would be .made more contented. He saw that 
slavery was degrading the poor white people of the South ; that its influ- 
ence for evil was felt everywhere in the land. A great resolve took pos- 
session of him — to wage relentless, uncompromising war against the in- 
stitution. What could he do ? He was poor — without a dollar. He had 
no friends. Nobody wanted to hear anything about slavery. He would 
be opposed. Men would call him a lunatic. He would be one against 
the whole country. But justice, right, eternal truth would be on his side. 
One with God is more than all the world beside. He could set types, and 
types would carry conviction. 

The young printer went to Boston, resolving to speak in the meeting- 
houses on the sin and iniquity of holding men in slavery; but no meet- 
ing-house opened its doors to him. There were no slaves in Boston. 
Why should anybody hear what an obscure young man who set types for 
a living had to say about slavery? 

The ministers of Boston little knew how resolute he was. Speak he 
would, and, if he could not have access to a meeting-house, he would ob- 
tain a hall. There was one on Pearl Street where ladies and gentlemen 
danced, and where Mr. Jullien supplied them with supper from his res- 
taurant, getting up a delicious soup. He has passed away, but the soup 
which he concocted is still eaten the world over. An infidel society held 
meetings in the hall on Sundays; sleight-of-hand performers pulled ribbons 



i^sS BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XIX. 

from their mouths, fried eggs in gentlemen's hats, made ladies' finger-rings 
mysteriously go and come, and performed other wonderful legerdemain 
upon its platform; and there, on the evening of October 16, 1830, the 
printer began his warfare against slavery. 

" lie is a prophet. He will shake the nation to its centre," said the 
Rev. Samuel J. May to Bronson Aleott, when the lecture was over. 

''Come to my house, Mr. Garrison, and we will talk about slavery," 
said Mr. Aleott. 

When the clock struck twelve they were still listening to what he had 
to sav, and were enlisted heart and soul to carry on what he had begun. 

The next Sunday Mr. May preached a sermon against slavery in the 
Unitarian church in Summer Street — the first preached in the United 
States under the new crusade. The Rev. Mr. Young was pastor of the 
church, and was greatly displeased. 

"'I never will ask you to preach again in my church," he said. 

" Such a sermon is incendiary and fanatical," said the rich men of the 
congregation. 

The printer started a newspaper — the Liberator — the first number 
making its appearance January 1, 1831. The New England Antislavery 
Society was formed the following week — Arnold Buffman, President. 

The great idea was getting a foothold. 

Some of the colored people held a meeting in Philadelphia to see what 
could be done toward establishing a school for themselves. They thought 
that New Haven, Connecticut, would be a good place for the school. Yale 
College was there, and Connecticut had done a great deal for education. 
Great the excitement in New Haven over the proposition. The mayor 
called a meeting of the citizens, and a resolution was passed declaring 
thai the education of colored people was an unwarranted and dangerous 
interference with the affairs of the State, and could not be allowed. 

There were learned professors in Vale College. There were scholar- 
ships to aid those too poor to help themselves to an education. Ministers 
preached on the duties and obligations of men to help their fellow-men. 
Earnest the appeals for money to Bend missionaries to the heathen; 
fervent their prayers for the conversion and enlightenment of the world. 
In the missionary conceit, to the music of the pealing organ, pastor, presi- 
dent, professor, and people sung Bishop Beber's Missionary Hymn: 

"From Greenland's icy mountains, 
From [ndia's coral strand; 
Where Airic'a Bonn; fountains 
Roll down their golden sand; 



1787-1840.] PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR. 289 

From many an ancient river, 

From many a palmy plain, 
They call us to deliver 

Their land from error's chain.'' 

It was their Christian duty to educate the heathen in India; but they 
could not think of permitting a negro school in New Haven ! 

Miss Prudence Crandall was a teacher, and at the request of the 
people of Canterbury, Connecticut, purchased a house in that village and 
opened a boarding-school for young ladies. A colored girl (Sarah Harris) 
became a pupil. She wished to acquire an education that she might teach 
colored children. 

"We cannot have our daughters attend school with a nigger," said the 
parents of the white girls, taking them out of school. Miss Crandall 
thereupon opened a school for colored girls. The selectmen called a town 
meeting, which was held in the meeting-house. The moderator stood in 
the deacons' seat and read a series of resolutions condemnatory of the 
school. Andrew I. Judsoh, who was a candidate for Governor, and who 
afterward became a judge of the United States District Court, made a 
speech, saying that the school must not be permitted to go on. The reso- 
lutions were passed. The store-keepers would not sell anything to Miss 
Crandall. The well in her yard was filled up by a gang of ruffians. The 
selectmen called upon her. " Under the vagrant law of the State," they 
said, "you must pay one dollar and sixty cents a week for every pupil not 
an inhabitant of Canterbury ; and if the colored girls do not leave town 
within ten days they will each be tied to the whipping-post and flogged." 
The sheriff seized Eliza Ann Hammond, from Providence ; but the Rev. Mi*. 
May, the first minister to enlist with Mr. Garrison in Boston, was preach- 
ing in the next town, and gave his bond for ten thousand dollars, and the 
sheriff did not flog her. The selectmen did not really want her whipped ; 
they had a suspicion that it would not read well in history. Besides, they 
had another plan. They went to the Legislature and obtained the enact- 
ment of a law prohibiting the teaching of a school for colored children bv 
anybody without first obtaining the consent in writing of a majority of 
the people and the selectmen of a town. 

Church bells rung, and there was a firing of cannon when the news 
came that the Governor had signed the bill and it was a law of the State. 
The sheriff put Miss Crandall in jail — into a cell from which a man had 
just been taken and executed for murdering his wife. Her friends prom- 
ised that she would be in court at the time fixed for her trial, and she was 
released. She went back to her school, but her old acquaintances would 
10 



290 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XIX. 

not speak to her. Iler neighbors would not let her draw a cup of water 
from their wells. The doctor refused her medicine. 

"You must not enter the meeting-house with your niggers," said one 
of the deacons. 

In the court-house, within a stone's-throw of the old home of Gen- 
eral Putnam, who, when the news eauie of what was taking place at 
Lexington and Concord in 1775, left his plough in the furrow and 
started for Boston (see "Boys of '76"), Miss Crandall stood up before 
judge and jury to be tried for the crime of teaching colored girls how to 
read and write. The lawyers said that the law was unconstitutional. Mr. 
Jndson, who made the speech in town-meeting against Miss Crandall, 
said it was not. The jury disagreed. Miss Crandall went back to school. 
Her house was set on fire ; but she threw on water and extinguished it. 
Then a mob came at night, with axes and crow-bars, hurled stones through 
the windows, and beat down the doors. She could live there no longer, 
and the scholars went to their homes. Prejudice had triumphed. But it 
does not read well in history. 

Were the people of Canterbury more prejudiced than the people of 
other towns? Not at all; the dislike was universal. In Canaan, New 
Hampshire, was an academy where a negro boy was endeavoring to obtain 
an education, which so incensed the people that the farmers of the town 
came with their cattle— fifty yoke of oxen— and drew the building into 
a pasture, breaking up the school. It was a wicked and cruel prejudice, 
born of slavery — which only the march of events inaugurated by the 
young printer could change. 



1635.] TEXAS. 291 



CHAPTER XX. 

TEXAS. 

TO get at the history of Texas we must go back to the wonderful man, 
Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who launched the first vessel that ever 
floated on the lakes of the North-west; who, just two hundred years ago, 
descended the Mississippi River, and on a dry spot of land at its mouth 
set up a cross, and buried a leaden plate with this inscription : " Louis, the 
great King of France and Navarre. April 9, 1682." He took possession 
for France of all the country drained by the Mississippi. He went up the 
river the next year, reached Quebec, and sailed to France. On the first 
day of August, 1684, four ships, with two hundred and eighty men, sailed 
from France to make a settlement in Louisiana. The vessels touched at 
St. Domingo, and passed on into the Gulf of Mexico. The King had ap- 
pointed La Salle governor of the settlement which he intended to make 
on the banks of the great river, but which he did not do, because the 
man who had been selected to navigate the ships made a mistake in his 
calculations and found himself at Matagorda Bay. He had sailed past 
the Mississippi. Instead of returning eastward to the great river, La 
Salle landed, built Fort St. Louis, and made the first settlement in Texas. 
The great explorer was murdered in 1688, while trying to make his way 
to Illinois. The Spaniards in Mexico, not wanting a colony of French- 
men so near them, came and took the fort, thus getting possession of 
the country. 

From the time of Cortez to 1821 Mexico had been under the dominion 
of Spain ; but, influenced by the example of the United States, and by 
what w;is going on in South America, the Mexicans, under the lead of 
General Iturbide, revolted from Spain. Iturbide made himself Emperor, 
but was overthrown and banished, and a constitution was adopted mod- 
elled on that of the United States. 

When the Spaniards conquered Mexico they enslaved the Indians, 
treating them with great cruelty. When the Indians died they stole 
negroes from Africa to work the mines and the sugar- plantations; but 



292 BUILDING THE NATION. [CHAP. XX. 

the Mexicans, having made themselves independent — wiser in one thing 
than the people of the United States — inserted a clause in their constitu- 
tion that any child born after its adoption should be forever free. This, 
however, did not suit the people: they wanted immediate freedom for 
everybody ; and, in 1829, they set all the slaves free, and declared that 
there never again should be a slave in Mexico. 

Texas was a part of Mexico — a beautiful country of woodlands, far- 
reaching prairies, pastures, cotton-fields, noble rivers, a fertile soil, adapted 
by nature to be the home of myriads of the human race. After the war 
with England was over the energetic traders of St. Louis and Natchez 
began to send trains of wagons and pack -mules to Texas, opening trade 
with the Mexicans, who had great ranches with herds of cattle and horses. 
The traders saw what a beautiful country it was, and one adventurer, 
James Long, in 1819, with seventy-five other restless men, went there, 
and issued a proclamation, styling himself President of the Council of 
Texas, but was killed, and his fellow-adventurers scattered. 

We come upon two other men whose names are inseparably connected 
with the history of Texas — Moses Austin and Stephen Fuller Austin — 
father and son. Moses Austin was born in the town of Durham, Con- 
necticut. In his boyhood none of his playmates were more energetic 
than he. Durham was too small for him, and he went to Philadelphia, 
where his brother Stephen had a store, and was importing goods from 
England, lie fell in love with a young girl and was married before he 
was twenty. He went to Richmond, Virginia, and opened a store. He 
bought the lead-mine on New River. Wythe County, moved there, and 
sent over to England for workmen, made shol and rolled out sheet-lead. 
His money gave out, and in 1796 the sheriff took possession of his works. 

He heard that there were lead-mines in the far West beyond the Mis- 
sissippi, in Upper Louisiana, owned by France. Across the Alleghany 
Mountains, down the Kanawha River and the Ohio, and up the Missis- 
sippi, he travelled, with his wife, in 179!). and settled at Potosi, Wash- 
ington ( 'ounty, Missouri. 

Twenty years go by. Louisiana has been purchased. Moses Austin 
hears of the wonderful richness of the lands in Texas owned by Spain. 
Why not go there? Why not stay where he is { His is a tireless spirit. 
Bis energy will not let him rest where he is. South-west, across Arkan- 
sas, swimming rivers, through forests, over nine hundred miles, he makes 
his way to Bexar, in Texas. 

One day in December he enters the little Spanish town, the capital 
of Texas, and calls upon the governor. 



1835.] 



TEXAS. 



293 



" I have come to see if Americans will be allowed to settle in Texas," 
he said. 

"Let me see your passport," said the governor. 

" I have none." 

" You have no right here. You will leave instantly, and get out of 
the country as soon as yon can." 

Who can tell how it happened that Baron Bastrop, of Prussia, who 
had been in the United States, should happen to be walking across the 
square in Bexar as Moses Austin came from the governor's house; that 
on their meeting should hinge 
the history of one of the great 
States of the Republic? 

" I will see the governor," 
said the baron. 

" Mr. Austin became a sub- 
ject of Spain in 1799 — before 
it was re-ceded to France. 
He has a right to be here," he 
said to the governor. 

" A Spanish subject ! That 
alters the case." 

Once more Mr. Austin ap- 
peared before the governor. 
He asked permission to settle 
three hundred families. The 
governor acceded to the plan, 
and Mr. Austin started for 
St. Louis. It was in January. 
He was obliged to swim riv- 
ers ; he had little to eat ; he 
took cold, grew weaker day 
by day, reached home only to 

die. But the son, energetic as the father, resolved to go on with the plan. 
On July 5, 1821, with seventeen men, he started for Bexar, explored a 
vast region of country, saw how beautiful it was, ami began a settlement, 
which received the name of Austin, now the capital of the State. He 
went to Mexico to obtain grants of land from the government, where he 
had to wait a year. 

The people of the Southern States began to go there. After the dis- 
cussion in Congress, whether Missouri should be a free or slave State, the 




TEXAS AS CLAIMED BY THE UNITED STATES, 



294 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XX 

far-seeing men of the South turned their eves toward Texas. They saw 
that from the territory acquired by the purchase of Louisiana only two 
more slave States could be organized, and that in a few years the slave- 
holding States would lose their politieal power in Congress and in the 
affairs of government. 

" If Texas could he obtained," said Judge CTpsher of Virginia, " it would 
raise the price of slaves, and be of great advantage to the slave-holders." 

"It would raise the price of slaves fifty per cent," said Mr. Gholson, 
of the same State. 

"Texas will make tive or six slave States," wrote Thomas II. Benton of 
St. Louis. 

Companies were formed to promote emigration. One in New Orleans 
was called the " Galveston Bay and Texas Company ;" one in St. Louis, 
the "Arkansas and Texas Company." By 1S33 nearly twenty thousand 
Americans had left the United States to become Texans. 

They had trouble with the Mexicans. They found it difficult to obtain 
titles to their lands. The constitution adopted in Mexico had been over- 
thrown by Iturbide, who wanted to be an autocrat; but three generals 
of the tinny — Victoria, Bravo, and Santa Anna — overthrew him, and he 
was banished. 

Then came other revolutions. The Mexican people were ignorant. 
The priests had great power over them. A government of the people to 
be enduring must, have schools; the people must be intelligent, and able 
to think and act for themselves. When the generals of the Mexican army 
wanted money they made forced loans, which was one way of plundering 
the people, for the loans never were repaid. There was so little law and 
order and justice under the Mexican government that the Americans who 
had emigrated to Texas declared themselves independent of Mexico, and 
adopted a constitution. Many of them held slaves, and they adopted an 
article which made slave-holding constitutional. They elected Henry 
Smith, who had emigrated from Kentucky, governor ; and Sam Houston, 
who was born in Virginia, and who had been Governor of Tennessee, com- 
mander-in-chief of the army. Fighting began. General Cos, with four- 
teen hundred Mexicans, was besieged in San Antonio by eight hundred 
Texans. and compelled to surrender. Santa Anna, who was at the head 
of affairs in Mexico, came with four thousand men to bring the Texans 
once more under bis authority. 

The news that the Texans were lighting for independence stirred the 
people of the Western and Southern States; and men who loved advent- 
ure, who were thrilled with the thought of securing the same independence 



1835.] 



TEXAS. 



295 



for Texas that the people of the United States had won from Great Brit- 
ain, hastened with their rifles to take part in the struggle. Among them 



fi v l 














-sp-^L 


1 ifiall) 


mm ■ > 


will 






was David Crockett, member of the Congress of the United States from 
Tennessee, who could pick off with his rifle the end of a squirrel's nose on 
the highest tree. He had killed so many raccoons that the hunters used 



296 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XX. 



to say that the coons in the woods knew him ; that one day, just as he was 
going to shoot a coon, lie heard a voice asking, 
"Is your name David Crockett?" 
"Yes." 

"Then don't shoot. Tin a gone coon. I'll come right down!" 
Across the country to Nacogdoches, and from there westward to San 
Antonio, rode this fearless hunter of Tennessee to take part in the struggle. 
The people of New Orleans held a meeting, contributed money, pur- 
chased guns and uniforms for two hundred and fifty men. The people 
of Cincinnati sent two cannon, which were labelled the " Twin Sisters." 
Down the Mississippi, on steamboats to Natchez, and thence across the 
country to Texas, streamed the adventurous spirits to aid in achieving the 

independence of the 
people who had flung 
to the breeze a flag 
with a single star — the 
flag of the " Lone Star 
State:" They rode fleet 
horses, and were or- 
ganized into compa- 
nies of Rangers. 

In February. 1 S35, 
Santa Anna. President 
and Dictator of Mex- 
ico, reached San Anto- 
nio. There were only 
one hundred and eigh- 
ty-eight Texans there; 
but though Santa Anna 
had four thousand. 
Colonel Travis deter- 
mined to hold the place 
till General Houston came to his aid. lie put his men into the little old 
church and mission building, just out of the town, where for more than 
one hundred year- the Jesuit priests had chanted their prayers and counted 
their beads. They called it the Alamo. The walls were of stone, thick 
and strong. 

Santa Anna sent a demand for the Texan.- to BUrrender, and they fired 
a cannon-shot into his lines as their reply. Day after day the Mexican 
cannon battered the walls, but with little effect. 




SANTA W\l 



1835.] 



TEXAS. 



297 



Sunday morning, March 7, 1S35, dawned, and the Mexicans, with scal- 
ing-ladders, made a rush upon the Alamo. Every loop-hole flamed, and the 
Mexicans were compelled to retreat. A second time they advanced, and 
again were driven back. A third time they come to the walls, place lad- 
ders against them, and climb to the top. Scores go down, but others take 
their places. Swarming on the wall, they fire down upon the Texans and 
leap to the ground. Now comes the hand-to-hand struggle — a clubbing of 
guns, pistol-shots, the clash of swords, the gleaming of knives — oaths, yells, 
and curses, clinching of teeth, splitting of skulls. Colonel Travis falls. 
David Crockett goes down. One by one the Texans drop. 




The sun is climbing the eastern sky. Its beams fall upon the grass 
still wet with dew. The battle is over — all is still. Within the Alamo — 
an enclosure one hundred and twenty by one hundred and ninety feet — 
upon the stone floor, where priests and penitents for a century have knelt 
in prayer, lie one hundred and eighty-eight Texans — every man who was 
in the enclosure at the beginning of the battle — and Ave hundred and 
twenty Mexicans — all dead, besides as many men wounded — the ghastliest 
spectacle ever beheld in North America ! In all sixteen hundred Mexi- 
cans were killed and wounded. 

Colonel Fanning and four hundred and forty-five Texans were taken 
prisoners at Goliad by Santa Anna. He promised to treat them kindly, 
but, in violation of his solemn pledge, ordered them to be put to death. 
Twenty-seven escaped, the others were murdered. 

There was terror in Texas. Eastward along the roads streamed the 
10* 



29S 



HUILDINt; THE NATION. 



[Chap. XX. 




SAMUEL HOUSTON. 



flying settlers. Eastward inarched the seven hundred and eighty men 
under General Houston, who had a plan which he intended to execute. 
The Mexicans would follow, and at the right place and the right time he 
would give them battle. 

Santa Anna, elated by what had been done, eager to capture the 

Texans, followed in swift pursuit. To 
travel faster he divided his army, little 
forecasting how disastrous it might be. 

Eastward for two days and a half, 
scarcely resting, retreated the Texans, halt- 
ing on the afternoon of April 20th on the 
shore of San Jacinto Bay, where the Buf- 
falo bayou joins its sluggish waters with 
the sea. lie had the two cannon which 
the citizens of Cincinnati sent him — -the 
"Twin Sisters." 

On by another road came the Mexi- 
cans, crossing the Buffalo at Yi nce's Bridge, 
forming in line of battle as the sun went 
down, ready to fall upon the Texans with its rising on the morrow. There 
was a little skirmishing in the evening, but Texans and Mexicans alike 
were too tired with the swift marching to go into battle. Thirty men 
on horses were General Houston's scouts. Early in the morning they 
were in their saddles. 

" Boys," said John Cokes, " we are going to have a bloody buttle, and 
I think it would be a good plan to burn Vince's Bridge, and cut off the 
retreat of the Mexicans." 

"That's so — we will do it!" shouted the other scouts. 
"I'll see what the general says about it," said their captain, Deaf 
Smith. 

"Do you think you can do it without being cut to pieces by the .Mexi- 
can cavalry ?" Houston asked. 

•• Give me six men. ami I'll do it or die." 
" Do it." 

The six fearless men make their way past the Mexicans, gain their 
rear, reach the bridge, and set it on tire. It was a little thing in itself 
that they had done, but of great moment in connection with what fol- 
lowcd. 

Along the low land-, by the groves of live oak fringing the marshes 
of the bav, Santa Anna formed his line, with his cannon in the centre. 



1835. j 



TEXAS. 



299 



Along the southern bank of the Buffalo bayou, with a cannon on each 
wing, General Houston formed his little army. Between the two armies 
were islands of timber, two beautiful green groves dotting the prairies. 
Breakfast is eaten. Westward rises a column of smoke from the burn- 
ing bridge. 

The Texans have not halted to be attacked but to attack. Forward 
to the islands of timber moves the line, the two cannon opening fire ; 
the cavalrv on the right swinging out in advance. The Mexicans are 
astonished. They came to attack, not expecting the Texans would dare 
to confront them. Steady the march. They reach the green islands, 
pass them. The " Twin Sisters " open their brazen lips, pouring canister 
into the Mexican line, only six hundred feet distant. 

The Mexicans open fire, but there is no faltering in the Texan ranks. 
There is a clicking of gun-locks, a flashing of rifles fired with deadly aim. 

" Remember the Alamo !" The shout rings out as the Texans rush 
upon the Mexicans, beating them down with the butts of their guns. The 
Mexican line breaks, and a panic seizes the soldiers. Over the prairies 
they flee, followed by the Texans. Fifteen minutes, and the battle is over 
— six hundred and thirty Mexicans killed, seven hundred and thirty taken 
prisoners. Among the spoils are twelve thousand dollars in money. 

Among the captured was Santa Anna, President of Mexico, who .was 
discovered by a soldier cowering in the tall grass, with his blanket over 
his head. 

General Houston had been wound- 
ed, and was lying on a mattress when 
Santa Anna was brought before him. 

" I am General Antonio Lopez de 
Santa Anna — a prisoner of war at your 
disposal." 

"Will you please sit down on that 
camp chest?" 

" I would like a piece of opium, if 
you have any, and would like to pur- 
chase my freedom." 

" That is for the Government of 
Texas to decide upon." 

"You can afford to be generous. You have conquered the Napoleon 
of the West." 

" You showed no mercy at the Alamo ; how can you expect mercy 
now ?" 




BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO. 



300 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XX. 

" By the rules of war, when a fort refuses to surrender and is taken 
the prisoners are doomed to death." 

" Such warfare is a disgrace to civilization. By what rule do you 
justify the massacre at Goliad?" 

"I had orders from government to execute all taken with arms in their 
hand-."" 

•• You are the government; you are Dictator of Mexico, and have no 
superior; you must write an order directing all the Mexican troops new 
in Texas to leave it," said General Houston. 

The order was written and executed, and thus came about the inde- 
pendence of Texas — the revolution inaugurated and accomplished by emi« 
grants from the United States. 



1837.] 



WAR WITH THE SEMINOLE INDIANS. 



301 



rr.MicAnopvtt 

TT-DRANt 



CHAPTER XXI. 

WAR WITH THE SEMINOLE INDIANS. 

IN the everglades of Florida, where the live oaks were hung with trail- 
ing festoons of moss, the Seminole Indians had their home. Negroes 
from Georgia, fleeing from their unrequited toil and brutal masters, made 
their way to the wigwam of the Seminoles — so far away amid the solitudes 
that the blood -hound could not track or the master ever regain them. 
So many negroes escaped that the slave-holders of the Southern States 
petitioned the government to remove the Seminoles beyond the Missis- 
sippi. The Indians did not want to go. Florida was their home. Had 
they not a right to remain there ? What right had the government to re- 
move them ? Some of the chiefs agreed to go, but Osceola, the most pow- 
erful of all, and most of the Indians, refused to 
leave their old homes and hunting-grounds. 

The Secretary of War sent General Thomson 
with troops to compel them to go, and war began. 
Osceola was wily. General Clinch was at Fort 
Drane, which Osceola was intending to capture. 
Major Dade, with one hundred and seventeen 
men, was sent from Tampa Bay to re-enforce him. 
Osceola watched his opportunity, fell upon Dade, 
and massacred all but four of the soldiers, who 
managed to escape and tell the woful tale. Os- 
ceola stole upon General Thomson and five of his friends while they were 
at dinner and killed them. 

Through 1836 the war went on, the soldiers following the trails of 
Indians through the terrible swamps, rarely overtaking them ; the In- 
dians, on the other hand, watching their opportunity to fall upon the 
soldiers. 

Some of the chiefs, tired of the war, agreed to go west of the Mis- 
sissippi, but Osceola still fought on. In October, 1837, he appeared 
before General Jesup with a white flag asking for a truce, and General 




SCENE OF THE SEMINOLE WAR. 



302 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[CHAP. XXI 



Jesup treacherously held him prisoner, sending him to Fort Moultrie, 
Charleston, where he died of fever and a broken heart. His arrest and 
imprisonment will remain forever a blot upon the honor of the country. 

Osceola was dead, but the Seminoles still resisted. Thousands of sol- 
diers perished of fever in the swamps. There were nine thousand sol- 
diers hunting them down. The Indians suffered a severe defeat in a 
battle fought by General Zachary Taylor near Lake Macaco ; but not till 
1S39, after a war of seven years, costing $40,000,000, were they finally 
subdued and removed to the Indian Territory. 



On March 4, 1837, Martin Van Buren, of Kinderhook, New York, be- 
came President. The country, seemingly, was very prosperous. The Erie 
Canal had opened a new highway to the West ; and the people of New 
England and Now York were selling their farms and moving to Indiana, 

Michigan, and Illinois. People in North 
Carolina and Virginia who did not like 
slavery were packing their goods in wag- 
ons and making their way over the moun- 
tains, to rear their houses in the free States 
beyond the Ohio. People from Europe 
were hastening across the sea — eighty 
thousand arriving in 1S37, most of them 
from Ireland — to wield the pick and spade 
in the building of railroads; the twenty- 
three miles of 1S30 becoming fourteen 
hundred and ninety-seven miles in 1S37. 
It cost $40,000,000— a great deal of 




MARTIN VAN HlltKN. 



money for those days — to build that num- 
ber of miles. Other millions were re- 
quired to build the great factories of Lowell, Pawtucket, and other places 
in New England. The employment of so much money, the movement of 
BO many people, brought about much buying and selling of houses and 
lands, which began to rise in value. Men and women were getting more 
money lor their labor. Girls who had been doing housework in the coun- 
try farm-houses, earning fifty cents a week, were now receiving from two 
to three dollars a week in the factory. Men who had been earning eight 
or nine dollars a week were obtaining from twelve to fifteen dollars. 

Buffalo, 1'ittsburg, Cleveland, Detroit, and Cincinnati were gaining 
verv fast. Speculators laid out towns and cities all over the West. Land 
which had cost them one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre was divided 



18:59. J 



WAR WITH THE SEMINOLE INDIANS. 



303 



into house-lots and sold for live hundred or one thousand dollars an acre — 
people for the most part giving- their notes for payment. The banks were 
issuing a great many notes, which passed for money ; but they were only 
promises to pay. Many people in the Eastern States, hearing of the fer- 
tility of the land in Illinois, gave notes to the banks and bought lands in 
the far West, expecting to get rich by the rise in value. A fever for spec- 
ulation set in. Everybody was trading — paying very little money, but 
giving promises to pay. Multitudes, instead of working, began to specu- 
late, creating fictitious values, issuing more promises to pay, adding noth- 
ing to real accumulations, but mortgaging prospective earnings. They 
bought and sold — scattered that which they called money issued by the 
bankers, not knowing that everything in the universe is under the domain 
of law, and that sooner or later the laws which govern progress, which are 
powerful to build up, are equally powerful to destroy. They did not com- 
prehend that industry is at the base of all material wealth. 

When the men who had given their notes could not obtain money to 
pay them the crash came. Speculators, merchants, farmers, manufactur- 
ers, bankers — all failed. Men who thought themselves rich found that 
they were poor — their property in the hands of the sheriff. There was 
distress everywhere — so great that the President called an extra session 
of Congress to adopt some measure for the relief of the people. 

The government was in the hands of the Democratic party, which had 
had a long lease of power. The Federal party 
had disappeared — the "Whig" party taking 
its place. The name came from Scotland, 
from the old Covenanters, who, when they met 
on Sunday in out-of-the-way places to escape, 
the fury of the soldiers who were hunting them 
down, because they would not worship as the 
King determined they should, quenched their 
thirst with whiggam, or whey. When Charles 
II. came to the throne, the gay, frivolous, and 
wicked courtiers around him ridiculed the 
sober-minded men who opposed him, calling 
them " whey -drinkers," or " whigs." So in 
England it became the name of a political 
party opposed to the Tories, and was adopted 
in the United States by those opposed to the dominant Democratic party. 

Congress did not pass any law at the extra session to relieve the people, 
and there was sn-eat dissatisfaction. 




JOHN TYLER. 



304 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXI. 

In 1840 the Democrats re-nominated Martin Van Buren for President 
The Whigs selected General William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, as their 
candidate, and John Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice-President. The Whigs 
called General Harrison " Old Tippecanoe," remembering what he had 
done in the war with England in 1812. The political speakers pictured 
him as living in a log cabin on the banks of the Ohio, wearing a coon-skin 
coat and cap, living on corn-bread, and drinking hard cider. There were 
great political meetings, processions, banners, log cabins, speeches, singing 
of songs by young men and boys. One was called the Tippecanoe song. 
Thus it ran : 

"Oh what has caused this great commotion 
Our country through ? 
It is the ball now rolling on 
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too; 
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 

General Harrison was elected by a great majority; but he lived only a 
short time, and John Tyler became President. 



1832.] BEGINNING OF A GREAT MOVEMENT. 305 



CHAPTER XXII. 

BEGINNING OF A GREAT MOVEMENT. 

fTMIE seed -corn planted by the young printer was taking root. The 
J- Liberator published by him was making its way over the country. 
Some copies went South. When the slave-holders discovered them they 
were very angry. The postmasters were on the alert to destroy any copy 
they might find — violating the law which prohibited any one from med- 
dling with the mails. Other antislavery newspapers were established : 
the Emancipator, in New York ; the Herald of Freedom, at Concord, 
New Hampshire. The American Antislavery Society was formed. In 
many towns and cities of the Northern States auxiliary societies were or- 
ganized to bring about the freedom of the slave in a peaceful way. Eng- 
land was abolishing slavery in the West Indies — why should it not be abol- 
ished in the United States ? The Colonization Society opposed the move- 
ment. 

" This society is in nowise allied to any abolition society in America 
or elsewhere, and is ready to pass censure upon such societies," was the 
vote passed by that society. 

That stirred the blood of Mr. Garrison, who went to England to in- 
form the philanthropists of that country of the attitude of the coloniza- 
tionists. William Wilberforce, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Samuel Gurney, 
of England, and Daniel O'Connell, of Ireland, sent out their protest against 
the Colonization Society. They said : 

" Its pretexts are a delusion. It takes its roots from a cruel prejudice 
against colored people. It fosters caste, widens the breach between the 
two races, exposes the colored people to persecution in order to force them 
to emigrate. It is a scheme gotten up in the interest of slave-holders and 
to perpetuate slavery. After seventeen years, and the expenditure of a 
great deal of money, only three thousand negroes had been transported 
to Africa — equal to the birth-rate of two and a half days of the colored 
population of the United States." 

The people of the Northern States began to see the society in its true 
light, and left off contributing to its support. 



306 



buildim; THE nation. 



[Chap. XXII 



A national antislavery convention was held in Philadelphia in Decem- 
ber, 1833. Fifty-seven years after the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence a second declaration was issued, recognizing the right of each 
State to legislate for itself on the subject of slavery, but declaring that 












T III;! TTA MOTT. 



Congress had the right to suppress the slave-trade between the States, and 
to abolish it in the District of Columbia and all the Territories. Sixty- 
two persons, representing ten States, signed it. 

While the convent ion was in session a lady with a fair, sweet face, 
wearing a Quaker bonnet, rose. She had something to say, but hesitated, 
for fear somebody would be offended if a woman were to speak. 



1834. J 



BEGINNING OF A GREAT MOVEMENT. 



307 



" Go on," said the president. 

It was Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia. Her address in the convention 
was the beginning of a new era in the lives of women in the United 
States. From that day to the present their voices have been heard in the 
discussion of public affairs. 

James G. Birney lived in Hunts ville, Alabama. He was a lawyer and 
a Presbyterian minister — arguing cases in court on week-days, preaching 
Sundays. He had a cotton 
plantation and held slaves. 
One of his slaves had been 
licensed as a minister, and 
preached to the others. 
One preacher of the Gos- 
pel owning a fellow-preach- 
er ! Mr. Theodore Weld 
thought it a singular spec- 
tacle. 

"May I ask by what 
moral right you hold your 
brother- minister in bond- 
age ?" he asked of Mr. Bir- 
ney, who had invited him 
to dinner. 

It was an arrow which 
went straight into the heart 
of Mr. Birney. When night 
came he could not sleep. 
All through the midnight 
hours he turned it over. 
Frank and manly his an- 
swer in the morning : " 1 
cannot show any moral right 
to hold slaves," he said. He 
liberated them, purchased a 
printing-press, and was go- 
ing to establish an antislavery paper in the town of Danville, Kentucky. 

"We will not have any such paper in this State," said the slave 
holders. 

Mr. Birney went to Cincinnati and established the Philanthr<>j l ' / ,st. 

" The citizens of Cincinnati are requested to meet at the Lower Market 




FIT ONLY TO UK A SLAVE. 



308 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXII. 

house, to see if they will permit the publication of an abolition paper," 
read the hand-bills posted on the walls of the houses. The postmaster 
presided. A committee of thirteen was elected ; eight of them were mem- 
bers of churches ; Jacob Burnett, Judge of the Supreme Court, Senator in 
Congress, was chairman. 

"Unless the Philanthropist is discontinued there will be a riot," said 
the committee to a committee of the Ohio Antislavery Society. 

Judge Burnett and the eight church-members helped on a mob which 
scattered the types in the street and threw the printing-press into the Ohio 
River. They tried to find Mr. Birney. 

" We will tar and feather him !" shouted a mob of ruffians. Not 
finding him, they smashed the windows in the houses of the colored 
people. 

A mob in Philadelphia attacked the colored people living there. One 
negro was killed; another, to escape, jumped into the Schuylkill and was 
drowned. Many were brutally beaten; women and girls indecently as- 
saulted. The windows of forty -four houses were smashed, the doors 
beaten down, and the furniture thrown into the street. In New York 
there were like scenes. 

The churches, instead of being foremost to help on the antislavery 
idea, strenuously opposed it — Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Congrega- 
tioiialist, Unitarian, Episcopal, alike. Ministers in the Northern States 
began to preach in defence of slavery, claiming that it was sanctioned 
by the Bible— a divine institution ordained by God for the well-being 
of the human race. Was not Canaan cursed? Was he not to be a 
servant all his days? Negroes were of an inferior race — fit only to be 
slaves. 

The women of Boston formed a Female Antislavery Society, and held 
a meeting October 21, 1835. The young printer, Mr. Garrison, and (reorge 
Thompson, of England, wen- there. Mary Parker read a chapter from the 
Bible and offered prayer. Mingled with the supplication were oaths and 
shouts from a mob outside the building. 

"We pray Thee to bless the slave in his bondage," from the lips of 
Mary Parker. 

••Snake out the Abolitionists. To the tar kettle with them!" is the 
shout of the mob. 

" L entreat yon to dissolve the meeting," cried Mayor Lyman, rushing 
into the room. 

" We demand protection," said the women. 

■• 1 cannot protect you.'* 



1835.] BEGINNING OF A GREAT MOVEMENT. 309 

Into the room rush the ruffians, knocking Mr. Garrison's hat from his 
head, putting a rope around his neck, dragging him into the street. 

" Hang him ! hang him !" shouted the mob. The police rescued him, 
taking him into the old State-house, in State Street, hustled him into a 
carriage, and drove him to the jail, to save him from the infuriated men — 
not from men whose homes were in old houses in out-of-the-way streets, 
but merchants and traders who had ships on the sea, and who bought cot- 
ton at Charleston and New Orleans ; who went from their counting-rooms 
to well-furnished houses, and drank wine at dinner. 

That 21st of October, 1835, was a day of riots. There was one in 
Utica, New York. An antislavery convention was to meet there. 

" It would be better to have Utica destroyed, like Sodom and Gomor- 
rah, than to have the convention meet," said Samuel Beadsley, member 
of Congress from Utica. The convention met, but a mob rushed in and 
broke up the meeting. 

" Come to my house," said Gerritt Smith, of Peterborough. He had 
come to Utica — not an antislavery man — to hear what the abolitionists 
would have to say. He loved justice and fair discussion, and from that 
hour was an abolitionist, giving freely of his money to help on the cause. 

There was an antislavery meeting in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. The 
Rev. Mr. Curtis was offering prayer. The Rev. George Storrs, who was 
to give an address, was kneeling beside him, when the sheriff seized him, 
and dragged him before a justice of the peace, who sentenced him to 
the House of Correction for three months. 

In Philadelphia stood Pennsylvania Hall, which cost $40,000, dedi- 
cated to free discussion. A meeting was held there for the discussion 
of three great moral questions : how to save drunkards ; how to bene- 
fit the Indians; how to abolish slavery. From South Carolina came 
two liberty -loving women to attend the meeting — Angelina and Sarah 
Grimke. 

A mob broke the windows with clubs and stones. Mr. Garrison made 
an address. 

"The mob think to silence us," he said; "but there shall be no silence 
till the bowlings of the bereaved slave-mother are turned into shouts of 
gladness. 

" If you will surrender the keys of the hall to me I will save it from 
destruction," said the mayor. 

The keys were given to him ; but at midnight it was set on fire by the 
mob and totally destroyed. 

In St. Louis a negro committed a heinous crime. He was seized by 



310 



i;nu>iN<; the nation. 



[chap.xxil 



the mob, tied to a stake, wood heaped around him, tar poured upon the 
wood, a lire kindled — roasting him alive. When life was extinct, and the 
crisped body was hanging to the stake, men and boys threw stones to see 
which should first smash the skull. 

"Such an act" — wrote the Kev. E. P. Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minis- 
ter, in a newspaper which he was editing — " is worthy of savages or of the 
dark ages," whereupon the mob threw his printing-press into the river. 

lie moved to Alton, Illinois — into a free State. The right of free 




DEATH OP LOVEJOY. (FROM a PRINT OE THE TIMES.) 

speech was the great question of the hour, lie sent for another printing- 
press, calling on the mayor for protection. Mr. Lovejoy and some of the 
citizens of the town were made special policemen to protect his property. 
The press arrived at night, and was put into a stone warehouse. Up from 
St. Louis came a steamboat crowded with armed men. Mr. Gilman owned 
the warehouse in which the press was stored. 

"It is my right and my determination to defend the property," said 
Mr. Lovejoy and the citizens with him in the building, who were armed 
with guns. 

" Tear down the building! Shoot the abolitionists !" shouted the mob, 
who began to fire ballots through the windows. The citizens in the build- 
ing returned the tiro, killing <>nr and wounding another. 

- Burn the building !" cried the mob. The;, raised a ladder, and 
a man went up with a torch t" Bet the roof on tire. Mr. Lovejoy came 



1836.] 



BEGINNING OF A GREAT MOVEMENT. 



311 



out with a gun in his hands, but the next moment fell pierced with five 
bullets. The citizens, seeing him fall, fled from the building, the mob 
firing upon them as they came, then entering the building, breaking the 
press to pieces, and throwing it into the river. 

Liberty of speech, the right of free discussion, was the question before 
the country now. Men who had taken no part in the antislavery ques- 
tion saw that there was a mighty issue at stake. A great meeting was 
held in Fanenil Hall, Boston, where on the walls are portraits of Washing- 
ton, Otis, Hancock, and Adams. Dr. Channing made a speech condemu- 




WENDKI.I. PHILLIPS. 



ing the outrage at Alton. Then the Attorney-general of the State, James 
T. Austin, sprung to his feet. 

"Lovejoy," he said, "died as the fool dieth. The men who threw his 



312 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[('MAP. XXII. 



press into the Missouri were as patriotic as the men who threw the tea 
into Boston Harbor before the Revolution. We have a menagerie in our 
city, with lions, tigers, hyenas, an elephant, a jackass or two, and monkeys 
in plenty. Suppose, now, some man with philanthropic feelings who be- 




EDMUND QUINCY 



lieves that all are entitled to freedom as an inalienable right, should en- 
gage in the humane work of giving them their liberty, and should try to 
induce them to break their cages and be free. Now, the people of Mis- 
souri had as much reason to be afraid of their slaves as we of the wild 
beasts of the menagerie. They had the same dread of Lovejoy that we 
should have of this supposed instigator, if we really believed the bars 
would be broken and the caravan let loose to prowl about our streets." 

"Hurrah!" shouted the crowd — well-dressed men as well as ruffians 
— who applauded the speaker. 

Upon the platform stepped a young man whose voice never before 
had been heard in the Hall — Wendell Phillips. 

" When I heard the gentleman," he said, " lay down principles which 
placed the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of Alton side by side with 
Otis, Hancock, Quincy, and Adams I thought those pictured lips on the 



1836.J BEGINNING OF A GREAT MOVEMENT. 313 

walls would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American — 
slanderer of the dead. For the sentiments the gentleman has uttered on 
the soil consecrated by the prayer of Puritans and the blood of patriots 
the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up." 

" Take that back !" shouted the crowd, shaking their fists at him. 

Mr. Phillips was not a man to take it back, but went on to say just 
what he pleased, determined that in the " Cradle of Liberty," as Faneuil 
Hall is called, there should be freedom of speech forever. 

Another man, Edmund Quincy, grandson of the patriot of the Revo- 
lution, from that evening became a leader of the movement for free speech 
and the freedom of the slave. He was an able writer, and his pen was 
ever employed in defending the principles which he had espoused. 

There were mobs and riots in many places, every outburst of violenoe 
setting men to thinking more seriously upon the great question of the 
hour 



314 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XX1U. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

WAR WITH MEXICO. 

r I^EXAS was a free and independent government. The Americans 
* who had settled there wished to be annexed to the United States. 
The slave-holders in the United States ardently desired its annexation, 
because it would increase their political power. 

"Slavery should pour itself abroad without restraint, and find no 

limit but the Southern Ocean," said Mr. Wise 
of Virginia, in Congress. 

lie was looking into the future, and saw 
that there was very little territory south of the 
southern boundary of Missouri that could be 
made into slave States. The slave-holders 
wanted not only to annex Texas, but to obtain 
all the country between Texas and the Pacific 
< >cean. In March, 1845, Texas was annexed 
by act of Congress. What was its western 
boundary? President Polk claimed that it 
was the Rio Grande; Mexico that it was the 
river Nueces. The strip of country between 
the two streams was nearly two hundred 
miles wide. The flag of Texas never had waved over it. President Polk 
ordered General Zachary Taylor, who was at the mouth of the Nueces, to 
take possession of the disputed territory. He marched across the country, 
and reached the Rio Grande. The people of Matamoras, on the west- 
ern bank, beheld with astonishment the planting of cannon opposite the 
town. The river is narrow, and the Americans were so near that they 
could lift their caps to the Mexican ladies and salute them with "Buena 
Senoritas." 

General Taylor stationed two vessels at the mouth of the Kio Grande 
to blockade the river. A Mexican vessel Loaded with flour attempted to 
enter, but was stopped; and flour became so scarce in Matanioras that a 
barrel was worth forty dollars. 




Z.U'UAllY TAYLOR. 



1846.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 317 

General Taylor sent Lieutenant Thornton with a party of dragoons 
to scour the country. 

" You are to capture and destroy any parties of the enemy you may 
meet," read his orders. 

Lieutenant Thornton discovered a party of Mexicans and charged upon 
them. There was a tight, in which sixteen Americans were killed and 
wounded. 

There had been no declaration of war, but it had begun through the 
aggressive acts of the United States. Mexico was in a state of anarchy. 
In 1844 Santa Anna was President, but had been deposed and banished. 

General Canaliza succeeded him; but General Herrera brought about 
another revolution aud became President. He was soon deposed by Gen- 
eral Paredes, who wished to be supreme dictator — these the changes of 
eighteen months. 

There were four distinct classes of people in Mexico: the Indians ; the 
Mestizas, descendants of the early Spanish settlers and Indians ; the Cre- 
oles, pure-blooded descendants of the first settlers from Spain ; and the 
Spanish who had been born in Spain, but who had emigrated to Mexico. 
The Creoles hated the Spaniards, and called them Gauchapins — a con- 



- ^-^WC^fl^Ss 




MONTEREY. 



temptuous epithet. The Mestizas outnumbered all the others. They loved 
display, to wear uniforms, to be called general or colonel. 

They had made themselves independent of Spain, and had established 
a republic, but had little conception of what constitutes a republic — that 
there must be intelligence, virtue, morality. There were frequent revolu- 
tions — each general aspiring to be President, and attempting, by using the 
army, to accomplish his purpose. 



318 



BUIL1UNO THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIII. 



The people were ignorant, the country poor. The priests owned more 
than half the land. The Mexicans knew very little of the power of the 
United States. They held the Americans in contempt. The Mexican 
Government paid no attention to the claims of the United States for prop- 
erty of American citizens taken and destroyed. The men who one after 
another became Presidents were looking after their own aggrandizement, 
and gave little heed to the welfare of the country or its relations tc 
other countries. When General Taylor inarched to the Rio Grande and 




FIGHT IN 1111. STREETS OF MONTEREY. 



occupied the country the Mexicans regarded it as an invasion. They 
were proud, and determined to tight 

Genera] Taylor, with twenty-three hundred men, was marching north 
from Point Isabel, <>n the sea-coast, toward Fort Brown, opposite Matamo 
ras. lie had twelve cannon, two of them eighteen - pounders. General 
A.rista, with six thousand men and twelve cannon, crossed the Ui<> Grande, 
and chose a spot between two thickets, where he would give battle. The 
Mexican troops wen- brave; but the artillery was no match for Major 
Ringgold's and Duncan's batteries of living artillery. 

General Arista placed his cavalry on his left wing, then two cannon, 
then a line of infantry, then four more cannon — so extending his line 
from thicket to thicket. 



lif/ *a 




1846.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 321 

It was noon, on May 8, 1S46, when General Taylor discovered the 
Mexicans. He left the Fifth Regiment of infantry and a squadron of 
cavalry to protect his three hundred wagons, and formed his troops across 
the road. The artillery galloped forward and wheeled ; the men leaped 
from the gun-carriages and opened fire. 

The Mexican cavalry, under General Torrejon, came round the thicket 
on General Taylor's right to seize the wagons ; but a volley from the Fif th 
Regiment sent them flying over the plain. The tall grass took fire from 
the gun-wads, and the flames swept toward the Mexicans. Under cover 
of the smoke General Arista moved a portion of his troops to attack the 
Americans ; but they were badly cut up by Major Ringgold's cannon. 
There was little musketry firing, but the cannon on both sides thundered 
till night. The Americans lost fifty-six killed and wounded; the Mexi- 
cans between three and four hundred. 

During the night General Arista retreated to Resaca de la Palma. 
Two thousand re-enforcements joined him, increasing his force to more 
than seven thousand. lie stationed them along a ravine with thickets 
on both sides. General Taylor advanced. The artillery opened. Cap- 
tain May, with his squadron of dragoons, swept over the plain, the horses 
upon the run charging upon a battery, cutting down the gunners, and 
capturing General La Vega. The infantry came on, fell upon the Mexi- 
cans, and drove them in confusion across the ravine. The battle was 
won. General Arista lost all his cannon, baggage, arms, ammunition, 
and five hundred pack-mules. 

A Mexican poet celebrated the encounter in the following lines: 

" Rio Bravo ! Rio Bravo ! 

Saw men ever such a sight, 
Since the field of Roncesvalles 

Sealed the fate of many a knight? 

"Dark is Palo Alto's story, 
Sad Resaca Palma's rout ; 
On those fatal fields so gory 
Many a gallant life went out. 

******* 

On they came, those Northern horsemen 

On like eagles toward the sun ; 
Followed thru the Northern bayonet, 

And the field was lust and won." 

General Taylor, with six thousand five hundred men, marched at 
once to Monterey, the capital of the State of New Leon. It is distant 

11 



322 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIII. 



one hundred miles from the Rio Grande, and is .situated in a beautiful 
valley, amid the Sierra Madre, or Mother Mountains. General Ampudia 





C O A H 




! 









I 



ZACA/TECAS / 



N I "< /"' 



aguas\ »p.I.ul»jPoto 

caliente'S /• ^f^V _^ 








^ nw ^w<' \ — -I'M* ' / j--v *^ iy/ 









ROUTE OF THE MEXICAN ARMIES BETWEEN VERA CRUZ AND THE ltIO GRANDE. 

was posted there with ten thousand Mexican Boldiers. Be erected forts 
and batteries, and planted cannon to defend it. One by one they were 
taken, and General Ampudia's retreat cut off. He sent a flag of truce.. 



,V v Vi n I'ffitWMH 
V 




■ 



li : 



. 






: 111! 
■ : II 

I J 

L 



!,'!;': 



;'!!'' 



/I i 



i ! m 









' 






Id47.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 325 

offering to surrender the town if General Taylor would permit him to 
leave. The offer was accepted, and he marched away. 

Mexico was in no condition to carry on the war successfully. It had 
no money ; everything was wanting. The officers were inefficient. Gen- 
eral Taylor was sweeping all before him. His name was a terror. An- 
other larger and more powerful American army, under General Scott, was 
getting ready to capture Vera Cruz and march for the city of Mexico. 
What should be done ? 

General Santa Anna, who had been an exile in Cuba, hastened to Mex- 
ico. The government wished him to become dictator; but he refused the 
offer, and was made commander-in-chief. 

Money must be had. Where could it be obtained ? Why not take 
the property of the Church? A law was passed by the Mexican Congress 
empowering the government to take such property sufficient to raise fif- 
teen million dollars. It was a great blow to the Roman Catholic Church 
in Mexico — one which must not be lost sight of in connection with the 
history of that country. The State of San Luis de Potosi authorized its 
governor to seize the property of individuals. Santa Anna pledged a por- 
tion of his own property. By these means money was obtained. 

In January, 1847, Santa Anna was marching north with twenty-five 
thousand men. It was eight hundred miles from the city of Mexico to 
Monterey ; but in less than a month's time he had organized the army and 
was ready to fall upon General Taylor. He would crush him, then hasten 
back and sweep General Scott into the sea. 

General Taylor had only four thousand five hundred men ; but he 
believed that he could win a victory at Buena Vista — " Beautiful View.'' 
It lies in a narrow valley, with lofty mountains on each side. Just south 
of the farm-house of Buena Vista was La Angostura, " the Narrows ;" be- 
yond, the valley southward, was a mile and a half wide. The plain was 
cut into deep ravines by the torrents which sometimes poured down from 
the mountains. General Taylor had retreated from Agua Nueva — the 
"•New Wells" — twelve miles, to Buena Vista. Santa Anna thought that 
he was fleeing to get beyond the Rio Grande, and sent General Miuon, 
with two thousand cavalry, over the mountains toward Saltillo, or Mon 
terey, to cut off his retreat, and pressed on to overtake him. 

February 22. It was Washington's birthday. At sunrise the drums 
beat, bugles sounded, and the band at Buena Vista played " Hail, Colum- 
bia!" as the regiments unfurled their flags to the breeze. 

Up the valley beyond the Narrows the soldiers beheld the Mexican 
army deploying to sweep them out of the valley or be cut to pieces. 



826 BUILDING THE NATION. [(map. Will. 

An officer with a white flag came down the valley, bringing a letter 

from Santa Anna to General Taylor. 

k> You are surrounded by twenty thousand men, and cannot avoid being 
cut to pieces. ... I give you this notice that you may surrender at dis- 
cretion," read the letter. 

"I beg leave to say that I decline acceding to your request," was Gen- 
eral Taylor's reply. 

Across the valley at La Angostura, where it was narrowest. General 
Taylor formed his line of battle. On the west side of the little stream 
were Bragg's battery and the Kentucky Volunteers. At Angostura he 
placed Washington's battery of eight guns, with the First Regiment of 
Indiana Volunteers. Next in line stood the Illinois Volunteers, com- 
manded by Colonel Hardin, and a company of Texans. This made the 
line complete to the higher ground of the broad plateau. 

The First Dragoons, the Second Illinois, and Second Indiana and 
Arkansas regiments were far out on the plateau, toward the base of the 
mountain. Washington's battery was the key to the position. The Nar- 
rows must be held, or all would be lost. 

Santa Anna ordered Geueral Ampudia to climb the mountain-side be- 
yond the head of the ravine and turn the left Hank of the Americans. 
It was past two o'clock in the afternoon before the Mexicans were ready 
to move. When General Taylor saw them climbing the mountain he 
directed the Arkansas and Kentucky troops — all under Colonel Marshall 
— to head them oft. 

From the Narrows across the plateau, almost to the base ot the moun- 
tain, galloped Lieutenant O'Brien with two of Washington's cannon. 

"Can you spare me another?" General Wool asked of Washington. 

" Yes." 

"If I take three guns what will become of the key to our position &" 

"I will defend it." 

Another gun went up over the plateau. 

It was three o'clock. Ampudia was far up on the mountain-side. The 
time had come for the battle to begin. The Mexican cannon opened, 
and Lieutenant O'Brien replied. Nearer to each other came the moun- 
tain-climbers. The musketry began — the Mexicans tiring wildly, the 
Americans resting their rifles on the rocks and taking deliberate aim — 
the tight going on till the sun went down behind the peaks of the Sierra 
Madre. When night came on the soldiers of each army rested in their 
positions. In the evening General Taylor rode to Saltillo to see that 
everything was safe there against an attack from General Minon. 



1647.] 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 



327 



Morning dawns. Santa Anna has arranged to attack with three 
columns. The first, commanded by General Yillamil. to move straight 
down the valley and seize the Xarrows ; the second, composed of General 
Pacheco's and General Lombard ini's divisions, to sweep along the base 
of the mountain; the third. General Ampudia, to gain the rear of the 
left flank, and with the second division sweep the Americans pell-mell 
out through the Xarrows. 

On the mountain once more begins the rattle of musketry. The 
Mexican cannon open fire. General Pacheco is crossing the first ravine. 
Lieutenant O'Brien saw his oppor- 
tunity, galloped forward with his 
guns, and threw the shot and shell 
thick and fast into the advancing: 
host. General Lane sent Colonel 
Bowles with the Second Indiana 
Regiment to support him. They 
opened fire, but Colonel Bowles 
suddenly issued a strange order. 

" Cease firing and retreat !" he 
shouts. ^^ ^^^^^^^^I^^^^^S^. 

Why he gave the order no 
one knows; but in an instant the 
regiment was broken up, the men 
running across the plateau to the 
rear. On came the Mexicans. 

"Double -shot with canister!" 
shouts O'Brien. 

The three guns flash, mowing great swaths in the ranks now close 
upon him. Down go the horses and men of one gun. Again two of the 
cannon flame. He can stay no longer. Back over the plateau the horses 
drag the two guns, leaving the third to the Mexicans. He reaches the 
Xarrows. Some of the artillerymen are dead on the plateau — all are 
wounded ; not a man, except Lieutenant O'Brien, has escaped uninjured. 

Toward the advancing hosts rumble two of Sherman's guns. The 
men leap from their seats, wheel them into position, and send canister- 
shot into the Mexican lines. 

With steady step move the Second Illinois Volunteers; Colonel Bis- 
sell commands them. The air is thick with balls, and the men involun- 
tarily duck their heads. 

" Stead} 7 , boys. Don't duck your heads." 




•I 



JOHN K. WOOL. 



328 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXIII. 

With a roar a cannon-shot passes by: Colonel Bissell involuntarily 
stoops in his saddle. 

•• You may duck the big ones, boys." 

He is cool, brave, kind-hearted, and the soldiers love him. With a 
cheer they move on. 

Mexicans in trout, on their right, and a great cloud sweeping round on 
the left of this one regiment, whose rifles are a sheet of flame. Colonel 
Bissell sees that he must fall back on his supports. 

" Face to the rear! March!' 1 

The troops move as they have been accustomed to move upon parade. 

Four companies of Arkansas Volunteers had been ordered up; but 
when the bullets began to fly they fled, and were not seen again during 
the battle. 

Down from the mountain moves Ampudia's infantry, folding back the 
Americans under Colonel Marshall, turning their left flank. 

With steady step down the valley, across the plateau, move the troops 
under Villamil — straight upon the five guns at the Narrows. Ampudia, 
Pacheco, and Lombardini are driving all before them. Villamil will take 
Washington's live guns holding the gate-way, and then will come the rout 
of the Americans. The five guns open, sending shells into Villamil's 
lines. The gap closes, and the Mexicans move on. They are in column, 
and the shells tear through the successive ranks. 

"Give them canister." It is Washington's quiet order, and the howit- 
zers, double-shotted, send a withering fire upon the head of the column. 
It melts away, moves back, and the next moment the men are fleeing to 
find .-belter in the ravines. 

Along the base of the mountain, .-till turning the American left flank, 
move Ampudia, Pacheco, and Lombardini. Villamil has been repulsed, 
but things look badly lor the Americans. 

Op to this hour General Taylor lias not been upon the field, but be is 
coming with .May's dragoons from Saltillo. The soldiers behold a cloud 
of dust at Buena Vista, and recognize their brave commander. They 
swing their hats ami give a cheer. General Wool lias been directing the 
buttle, but now General Taylor take- command. Villamil has been 
crushed. There is no need for Bragg and the Kentucky regiment to stay 
on the west side of the brook. The\ are ordered to the plateau. Up the 
plateau toward the Mexicans, the horses upon the gallop, rumble Br 
and Sherman's guns. Six cannon open lire — not now toward the south, but 
easl and north-east. Still advances Ampudia. The Mississippians, under 
Colonel Jefferson Davis — one small regiment— alone confronted him: the 



184?.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 329 

Mexicans on the south and the Mississippians on the north bank of a 
ravine. 

" Forward !" The whole regiment shouted it. Their blood was up. 
Down the north bank they leaped ; up the southern, standing face to face 
with the Mexicans. They brought their guns to the level — a sheet of 
flame burst forth. The Mexicans reeled, wavered, became confused, and 
then fled to find shelter in the ravine behind them. 

Still toward Buena Vista pressed the Mexican cavalry. 

Major Dix, Paymaster, was there. Toward Saltillo were streaming 
the fugitives of the Second Indiana. His soul was on fire. He seized 
their colors, shamed them by his brave words, gathered up the fugitives 
of all regiments. Dragoons came. General Taylor sent two cannon. 
They moved out in front of the Mexicans and stopped them. On the 
plateau stood the Mississippians and First Indianas with one of Sher- 
man's howitzers. In close column of squadron, fifteen hundred Mexican 
lancers came upon them, the troops gayly dressed, their horses elegantly 
caparisoned, the lancers sitting erect. The brigade was the pride of Santa 
Anna. They were rich men's sons — the must dashing troops ever put 
into the field by the Mexicans. Like the rumbling of distant thunder 
was the tread of the horses' feet. 

One charge and that handful of Americans would go down beneath 
their feet, pierced by lances, trampled to jelly. Motionless as statues, 
silent as the dead, stood the Mississippians and Indianas, their rifles 
loaded. The Mexicans were astounded. 

Whv did not the Yankees run? Why did they not fire? 

The gallop slackened to a trot, to a walk, then halted — only three hun- 
dred feet away. Fatal mistake ! Ride on into the jaws of death, launch 
your column like a thunder-bolt, if you would win, O Mexican commander! 

" Make ready !" 

There was a clicking of locks. 

" Take aim !" 

The five hundred rifles came to the level — each rifleman singling out 
his man. 

"Fire!" 

Down went the column — men and horses together in a ghastly heap. 
Canister from the howitzers tore through them. Lack over the plateau 
fled the living. 

The supreme moment of the battle had passed. The tide which had 

been bearing the Americans back little by little had turned, and now 

the Americans were pursuing the Mexicans back to the mountains 

11* 



33d BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXIIL 

Washington's, Sherman's, and Bragg's cannon — all were thundering. 
Mexican fugitives were beginning to climb the mountains. Ampudia 
and Paeheco were hemmed in. 

A Mexican officer with a white flag came down the plateau, bringing 
a letter. The roar of battle ceased. 

''What does General Taylor want? 1 ' was the remarkable question 
asked by Santa Anna. It took a little time to receive it; and while the 
tiring ceased Ampudia and Paeheco made haste to get beyond the pitiless 
storm from Bragg's and Sherman's guns. Santa Anna had another object 
in view: he wished to know just how many Americans there were at the 
Narrows. 

The officer bringing the letter made good use of his eyes. Santa Anna 
marshalled his reserves. Ten thousand Mexicans under Villamil once 
more advanced. By concentrating all his force upon the Narrows he 
could win the battle. The Mexicans rushed upon O'Brien's two guns and 
6eized them. 

Bragg and Sherman are on the plateau. 

"To the Narrows!" was General Taylor's order, and the drivers lashed 
the horses to a run. 

Davis and Lowe with their soldiers, upon the double-quick, streamed 
over the plain. Washington sends canister into the faces of the Mexi- 
can-; Bragg and Sherman into their (lank. Xo troops can stand against 
such a pitiless storm. The rifles of the Mississippians and Indianas rattle 
once more. The column breaks; the Mexicans throw down their guns 
and flee. The battle is won. From daylight till three o'clock it lias 
raged — the four thousand five hundred Americans defeating twenty-five 
thousand. Of the Americans two hundred and sixty-seven were killed 
and four hundred and fifty wounded; of the Mexicans the killed and 
wounded numbered about five thousand. 

Morning dawned. The Mexican army was fleeing southward, leaving 
more than two thousand wounded to be cared for by General Taylor. 
The Mexican women of Buena Vista and Saltillo ministered to them; 
and, to their honor, extended their kindness to the wounded Americans. 
The fame which has resulted from the heroic devotion to the calls of 
humanity by these noble-minded women prompted the lines by Whittief 
entitled "The A.ngels of Buena Vista:" 

'"Speak and tell us, our Ximena, looking northward far away, 
O'er tin' camp of the invaders, o'er the Mexican array, 
Wlio i> losing? Who is winning? Arc they far, or come they near? 
Look abroad and tell as, Bister, whither rolls the storm we hear?' 



1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 331 

" ' Down the hills of Angostura still the storm of battle rolls ; 
Blood is flowing, men are dying — God have mercy on their souls !' 
• Who is losing ? Who is winning ?'— ' Over hill and over plain 
I see but smoke of cannon clouding through the mountain rain.' 

"Nearer came the storm, and nearer, rolling fast and frightful on. 
' Speak, Ximena — speak, and tell us who has lost and who has won f 
i Alas ! alas ! I know not ; friend and foe together fall : 
O'er the dying rush the living. Pray, my sisters, for them ail !' " 



132 



BU I L DING THE NATION. 



[Cuai-. XI LV. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

WAR WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 

D< >\VX the coast of Mexico sailed a fleet, commanded by Admiral 
Conner, transporting fourteen thousand men. General Scott, who 
won the battle of Lundy's Lane, was commander-in-chief of the army. 
Under him were Generals Worth, Twiggs, Pillow, Patterson, and Quit- 
man. General Scott was 
planning to capture Vera 
Cruz, a city of fifteen thou- 
sand inhabitants, and then 
march inland to the city of 
Mexico. 

Vera Cruz was surrounded 
with fortifications. At the 
south-western side, upon the 
beach, was Fort San Jago; 
on the north stood Fort Con- 
ception. Between the forts 
wost of the city were re- 
doubts and redans. In the 
harbor was the Castle of 
San duan de Ulloa. On the 
fortifications there were two 
hundred and eighteen can- 
non. In the city and castle were foiu thousand soldiers, under General 
Morales. 

General Scott, instead of attacking the castle with the fleet, decided 
to hind the army, besiege the city, and compel its surrender, with the 
castle If he could cut of!' all Bnpplies want of provisions would soon 
bring it about. 

General Moral.- was making his calculations on a different plan. It 
was March. The noonday sun was -ending down its scorching heat; sick- 




VVINFII LD SCOT! 



1847.] WAS WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 333 

ness would soon make its appearance. The yellow-fever every year swept 
the Terra Caliente, as the Mexicans called the hot plains of the sea-coast. 
Sickness and the " vomito" would be the allies of the Mexicans. He would 
hold the city till the yellow-fever made its appearance. 

The American fleet reached Vera Cruz. General Scott, on a small 
steamer, sailed along the roadstead — running in so near the castle that the 
great guns began to flame, sending one shell close to the steamer. He 
discovered a landing-place three miles south of the city — a long reach of 
yellow sand, a smooth beach, with no Mexicans near to oppose the land- 
ing. If there were any they were out of sight, secreted in the chaparral 
crowning the sand-hills back from the beach. 

When all was ready the surf-boats were launched, the sailors at the 
oars. The soldiers of General Worth's division stepped in, and the flotilla 
swept toward the beach. Officers up in the rigging of the vessels looked 
landward with their glasses, expecting to see a Mexican army show itself 
beyond the sand-hills to oppose the landing; but none appeared. General 
Morales with half a dozen cannon might have done them much harm; but 
for some reason he did nothing, and they landed without opposition. 

It was slow, hard, and tedious work to get the heavy siege-guns, the 
cannon-balls, powder, tents, wagons, provisions, horses, and mules on shore. 




There was a heavy swell. A " norther" came on, rolling great waxes upon 
the beach, smashing the boats, wrecking several of the ships. There was 
no harbor, no projecting point of land to shelter the ships. The troops 
are suffering for want of fresh-water. When the storm abated all hands 
worked with a will. The engineers reconnoitred the country. One of 



334 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Uhap.XXIV. 



them was Robert E. Lee; another was Captain Ulysses S. Grant— names 
inseparably connected with the history of our country. 

On March 22 the Americans had taken possession of the country west 
of the city, and the siege-gun* and mortars were in place. No one could 




HuMHAKD.MKNT OK YKKA CRUZ. 



enter or depart from the town. General Scott sent a white flag to Gen- 
eral Morales demanding its surrender. 

" The city will be defended to the last," was the reply. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon the cannonade began. Till darkness 
came, through the night, the next day — for nine days — shot and shell 
were rained upon the town — the Mexicans replying. 

General Morales had not calculated correctly in regard to provisions; 
they were getting scarce. The yellow-fever had not come. The people 
were suffering; shells were exploding in their houses. The Americans 
were planting their batteries still nearer. He saw that the town must be 
surrendered. General Scott demanded the castle also, and town and cas- 
tle were both given up — the troops, after laying down their arms, having 
liberty to go to their homes. The Americans had obtained a foothold on 
the sea-coast, and soon would be on their way to the interior. 

Santa Anna, defeated at Buena Vista by General Taylor, was hasten- 
ing back to Mexico. The country and the city were in a state of anarchy. 
His army had crumbled to pieces. The nation had no government wor- 



1847.] 



WAR WITH MEXICO— CONTTNUED. 



335 



thy of the name. Some of the officers of the army had begun a revolu- 
tion, but he put it down, and began organizing another army. 

General Scott must be defeated. Morales aroused the patriotism of 
the Mexicans; compelled the poor peons to go to work with their spades 
digging ditches and throwing up intrenchments at Cerro Gordo, a pass in 
the foot-hills, where the Americans could be defeated. In a few days he 
had an army of thirteen thousand, with cannon on the hills to sweep the 
valley. To provide water for his troops he made the peons dig a ditch 
twelve miles long. 

The Americans reached Cerro Gordo on April 17. They found it a 
rugged pass in the hills, a small river winding through it. General Scott 




ROCTE TO MEXICO. 



ordered General Pillow to attack on the right, General Worth the left, 
and General Twiggs to gain the rear of the Mexicans by marching to the 
left, and, if possible, cut off their retreat. 

There was some fighting just at sunset on the 17th, but the soldiers 
of both armies lay down without tents, knowing that in the morning the 
battle would begin. The sun rose, and soon after the Americans were on 
the march. The Mexicans, looking down from their batteries, beheld the 
lines of men in blue advancing along the deep ravine, over rocky ground, 
through thickets of scrub oak and cactus. The Mexican cannon flashed. 
Solid shot and shell were rained upon the advancing columns, which still 
eontinued to advance. Soldiers unaccustomed to firing downhill usually 
overshoot the mark; experienced hunters aim low — General Putnam and 
John Stark, at Bunker Hill, told the soldiers to aim at the waistbands of 
the British. When the Mexican muskets began to flame the bullets went 
over the heads of the men in blue, who, firing uphill, made terrible havoc. 
It was a hard-fought battle, but the men in blue rushed up the heights at 



336 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIV. 







\ I I \rk n\ CERR RDO. 



last, leaped over the breastworks and took possession of them, routing 
the Mexican.- at every point, capturing the cannon (forty-seven in all) and 
more than three thousand prisoners. The Americans lost four hundred 
killed and wounded. When night came Santa Anna was fleeing toward 
the city, and Mexico had no army. 

General Scott inarched on to the city of Jalapa, so called because 
from that city, in L610,the root of the jalap-plant -the Convolvulus purga 



1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 337 

— was first exported to Europe, and which from that time to the present 
doctors have administered to their patients. 

General Scott was obliged to wait at Jalapa for supplies. The time 
for which the volunteers had enlisted had expired, and they must be sent 
home. He must await the arrival of three thousand new recruits, under 
General Franklin Pierce, before moving on. The soldiers needed rest. 
The} r were up amid the hills — out of the Terra Caliente. The air was 
healthful, and they had fine times eating oranges and figs, and, whenever 
they could get it, drinking pulque, made from the juice of the maguey, or 
century plant. The Mexicans make an incision in the plant, collect a pail- 
ful of the juice daily, allow it to ferment, then put it into bottles made of 
pig-skin. If they drink too freely, the fumes, as of other liquors, set them 
singing or dancing, or make them weak in the legs. The soldiers drank so 
much that General Scott was obliged to put a stop to it. Discipline won 
the battle at Lundy's Lane, and discipline and valor must win in Mexico. 

Great the consternation among the Mexicans in the city when it was 
known that all was lost at Cerro Gordo. Deeper than ever the hatred of 
the Yankees. 

" Death to the Americans !" " Viva la Republica Mexicana !" were the 
shouts that rent the air. They would fight to the last. A new army was 
organized. The shop-keepers closed their stores and became soldiers. 
In a short time Santa Anna had again an army, far larger than that at 
Buena Vista — in all an army of thirty-five thousand. All were animated 
by one idea — to prevent the capture of the city by General Scott. 

Onward from Jalapa, over the National Road, marched the Americans, 
beholding the white-capped dome of Popocatepetl. 

When Cortez invaded Mexico the city was surrounded by a shallow 
lake, but now the water has dried up, and there is a wide expanse of 
marsh -land, with canals, along which the farmers go in boats, carrying 
vegetables, hay, and pig- skins filled with pulque to market. Across the 
marshes runs the Aqueduct, built on massive stone arches, conveying pure 
water from the mountain streams to the city. Over the marshes also runs 
the National Road to Vera Cruz, along which General Scott was marching. 

Santa Anna expected that the Americans would attempt to march 
directly into the city by that road, and erected fortifications and planted 
cannon to sweep it. To prevent their approach from the north side still 
stronger batteries were erected by the peons. Ditches were dug, em- 
bankments thrown up, and cannon placed in position. East of the city 
lies Lake Tezcuco; south of it, six miles away, are two other lakes : Lake 
Chalco, reaching to the foot of the mountains, \vith only a mule-path be- 



338 



r,riu>i\<; tin; nation. 



[Chap. XXIV. 



tween the mountains and Lake Clialco — a path leading over rugged lava- 
beds. The Mexicans never dreamed that General Scott would leave the 
wide and hard-beaten National Road and take his cannon and baggage- 
wagons along such a rocky path. But General Scott remembered what 
Bonaparte once said : " Never go where your enemy wants you to go." 
Santa Anna wanted the Americans to march along the National Road to 
El Pefion, where he had erected batteries; or he would not care if they 




AMERICAN ARMY AITKii.w HIM. MEXICO. 



went up the east side of Lake Tezcuco and approached the city from the 
north. He did not think if likely thai General Scott would choose; to ad- 
vance from the south-west, and did very Utile to protect that quarter. He 
made no attempt, after the defeat at Cerro Gordo, to stop the American.-. 
He would let them get through the gap in the mountains into the valley, 
far from all their supplies. He would fight on the defensive, putting the 
Americans to disadvantage. 

I |» over the hills, ascending all the way from Vera Cruz, marched ten 
thousand Americans to attack a city <>f one hundred and fifty thousand 
inhabitants, defended by thirty-five thousand men in arms. The soldiers 
reached the divide, and, looking westward, beheld the wide reach of marsh- 
lands, the placid waters of the lake- -learning in the sun, the glistening 
crosses on the spires of cathedral and churches. 

"The mule-path can U' math' practicable for the cannon and wagons," 



1-B47.] 



WAK WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 



341 



said the engineers, and General Scott, instead of going where Santa Anna 
wanted him to go, turned off from the main road. The peons, who had 
been compelled to work for the Mexicans, were just as ready to work for 
the Americans. They rolled rocks out of the road, levelled down the steep 
hills, tilled the ravines, and the army moved on around Lake Chalco and 
across the j>ed regal — 
" the lava-beds " — as the 
Mexicans called it. 

With five thousand 
Mexicans, General Va- 
lencia confronted the 
Americans at Contreras. 
This officer was proud, 
self- willed, boastful. He 
was intriguing to over- 
throw Santa Anna and 
become commander-in- 
chief himself. Santa 
Anna, seeing that Valen- 
cia could not maintain 
his position at Contreras, 
ordered him to fall back 
toward a stronger po- 
sition at Cherubusco. 
There was no reason 
why he should stay at 
Contreras, except that 
there the mule*- path 
joined the main road. 
When an American rec- 
onnoitring party came 

clown the path the Mexicans fired upon it and killed a horse. The recon- 
noitring party retired, which so elated Valencia that he sent word to Santa 
Anna, at Cherubusco, that he had driven back the Americans and won 
a greal victory. 

" Fall back 1 ' was Santa Anna's order repeated. 

General Valencia refused to obey. He would hold his position, defeat 
the American-, and become the great man of the nation — commander-in- 
chief and dictator. He had twenty-two cannon. There was a ravine in 
front of him; the lava-beds protected his right flank. There were skir- 




IHE aqi i. in ci. 



342 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap XXI v 

mishing and cannonading, marching and countermarching. Santa Anna 
came from Cherubusco with twelve thousand men. 

" I have won a second victory" was the message which he received from 
Valencia, who, because the Americans had retired after finding just how 
he was situated, thought that he had defeated them. 

Santa Anna announced the victory to his troops in front of the haci- 
enda of San Jeronimo. 

"Viva el General Valencia!" "Viva la Bepublica Mexicana!" were 
the shouts that rent the air. The Americans heard the cheering and the 
music of the bands. 

A thunder-storm came on, and the soldiers were chilled by the rain. 
At midnight the moon came out. Santa Anna was not pleased with the 
position occupied by Valencia, and sent a message ordering him to spike 
his guns, destroy his stores, and retreat before he was cut off from the main 
body of the Mexican army. Santa Anna could see by the light of the 
moon that the Americans had not retreated, but were ready to attack. 
General Valencia, in his pride and ignorance of generalship, refused to 
obey the order. 

"The Americans are shut up among the lava-beds, and I shall anni- 
hilate them in the morning," was his answer. 

At the link' village of San Jeronimo were four American brigades — 
Smith's, Cadwallader's, Riley's, and Shields'.-,. Santa Anna, dissatisfied 
with his own position, retreated in the darkness toward Cherubusco. Day 
was dawning when the soldiers, laying aside their blankets, took their posi- 
tion in line, crossed a little brook, rushed up the bank of the ravine, and 
attacked Valencia. There was a flashing of cannon and muskets, bayonet 
thrusts, and clashing of swords. Fifteen minutes and the battle was over; 
the Mexicans on their knee- hogging for quarter, or fleeing in consterna- 
tion over the lava-beds and up the Bides of the mountain — Valencia the 
foremost in the flight. The Mexican loss in killed, wounded, and prison- 
ers exceeded three thousand; the American loss, sixty. Valencia, in his 
pride, arrogance, wilfulness, and Incompetence, had lost the battle, and 
the Americans were at liberty to move on toward the city. 

General Santa Anna was at Cherubusco. The river runs from we>r 
to east, and the road to Mexico crosses it by a Btone bridge. There i> a 
convent built of stone, in and around which he posted his troops and along 
the bank of the river, lie planted his cannon to sweep every approach. 
North of the bridge, in the road, were his reserves. The whole Mexican 
army, numbering thirty thousand, were in position. In the village, around 
the houses, along the roadway, were groves of maguey. In the fields were 



1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 345 

vegetable gardens. The foliage was so thick that the engineers conld not 
see how the Mexican troops were stationed ; the army must feel its way. 
The generals only knew that the whole Mexican army was concentrated 
before them, and that there was to be a desperate battle ; that along the 
banks of the Chernbusco, sheltered by the cactus hedges, were thousands 
of Mexicans, and artillery ready to sweep every road. 

Generals Worth, Pillow, Cadwallader, and Twiggs marched from the 
cluster of houses at San Antonio, straight along the road; Pillow and 
Twiggs turning to the left across the marshes ; Cadwallader going straight 
toward the convent; Generals Pierce and Shields marching out on the left 
to the little village of Coyacan, west of the convent, crossing the river, and 
pushing east to attack Santa Anna's reserves along the causeway toward 
the city. It was a very bold and hazardous movement, but one which had 
a great deal to do with determining the result of the battle. It was an 
attack, front and flank, on an army three times as great as the force 
under General Scott. 

Very stubborn was the fighting. The convent windows were sheets of 
flame. From the shelter of the corn in the fields came volleys into the 
faces of the men in blue ; from the maguey hedges poured leaden rain ; 
from the Mexican cannon a pitiless storm of shells. 

Steady the advance of the Americans. Down the roadway flew the 
shells from the American batteries, exploding where the Mexicans stood 
thickest. Through the walls of the convent crashed the solid shot, scat- 
tering the bricks — every brick a missile to lacerate and destroy. 

Xearer pressed the Americans — Captain Taylor, with his battery, ad- 
vancing within three hundred feet of the convent. Hours passed. The 
men in blue were falling thick and fast. The decisive moment came. 
With a "Hurrah!" General Worth's troops leaped across the ditches, cut 
their way through the hedges, and climbed the embankment beyond. The 
Mexicans, taken by surprise, threw down their guns and fled panic-stricken 
along the causeway, through the reserves — which in like manner are seized 
with panic and flee in consternation, leaving thirty-seven cannon, all their 
wagons, supplies — everything. The troops in the convent, finding that 
they are deserted, that their retreat is cut off, give themselves up as 
prisoners. 

What a scene is that along the causeway! Twenty thousand fugitives, 
with horses, mules, and wagons, wedged into the narrow road, shot and 
shell tearing through them from Chernbusco; and Shields and Pierce cut- 
ting them in pieces from the corn-fields on the west! Along the cause- 
way rode Kearney's cavalrymen, their sabres gleaming in the sun. the 



;i.; 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIV. 



horses upon the run, trampling down the fleeing Mexicans, pushing on al- 
most to the gates of the city. Two Mexican cannon stationed there send 
charges of canister into friend and foe alike. Men go down before it like 
grain before the reaper. 

In this battle General Scott lost more than eleven hundred men; the 
Mexicans, seven thousand killed, wounded, and prisoners. 

A white flag came out from the city with a proposal for an armistice 




CATHEDRAL UK MEXICO. 



It was agreed upon, August 20. Sixteen days passed in negotiations for 
peace. But the Mexicans were not ready for peace. The army was being 
secretly reorganized. Bells were being taken from the steeples of the 
churches to be cast into cannon, it was said, at Molino del Rev — the 
King's Mill — west of the city, close by the Castle of Chapnltepec. General 
Scott ordered General Worth to march to Molino del Rev and break up 
the machinery. General Worth found Molino del Key to be a stone build- 
ing, with loop-holes in the walls, defended by a battery and by a large 
body of troops. The armistice was at an end. The Mexicans were ready 



1847.] 



WAR WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 



:*.47 



to renew the strife. General Scott had only eight thousand five hundred 
men, and might be defeated. 

General Worth advanced against the Mill, not expecting much resist- 
ance, bnt soon discovered that the Mexicans were in a strong position. 
The Americans were repulsed ; and the Mexicans, rushing out, barbarously 
put the wounded to death. Re -enforcements came, and after a sharp 
struggle the seven hundred Mexicans were taken prisoners, and the rest 
driven to the shelter of the strong Castle of Chapultepec. A Spanish 
governor built it for a castle and palace. Under the Mexican Republic 
it had become a military school. It stood on a hill one hundred and 
fifty feet higher than the surrounding plain. The walls were of stone, 
twelve feet high. The enclosure was nine hundred feet in length. There 
were eleven cannon on the walls. Around the base were beautiful proves 
the ground laid out in gardens, with walls and aqueducts. Six thousand 




PALACE of MEXII 



men defended it. To capture it the Americans must' force their way 
through the groves, disperse the Mexicans stationed there, climb the steep 
hill, set ladders against the walls, gain the top, and drive the Mexicans 
before them with the bayonet. 



348 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIV. 





^■1 ■ ''Ml • * 



fife 'ci 



MRI 




. 






irj/l,ujf!ri 







BATTLE OF MOLINO DEL REY. (FROM A PRINT OF THE TIME.) 

On September L3 the American cannon opened fire. When all was 
ivu.lv the troops advanced. Desperate was the fighting in the orchards 
and gardens. Inch l»y inch the Mexicans were driven. The storming 
party quickly placed their ladders against the walls. Lieutenanl Selden 
was the first to mount. A bullet brought him down. Lieutenant Rog- 
ers and Lieutenant Smith fell dead, with many of the men. Captain 
1 Inward was the first to reach the top of the wall unhurt. After him 



1847.] 



WAR WITH MEXICO— CONTINUED. 



849 



swarmed the soldiers, pouring leaden rain upon the astonished Mexicans 
leaping down, charging bayonets, gaining the castle, and sending up such 
a " Hurrah !" that the people in the city heard it, and knew that the Amer- 
icans — victors in every battle from Palo Alto down to that moment — were 
in possession of Chapultepeo. 

There was still some lighting at one of the gates of the city ; but the 
Mexicans had no longer power to resist. On September 14 the army 
marched in and took possession of the public square and the capital. 
General Scott had less than seven thousand men left. In everv eno-ao-e- 
ment his troops had been victorious. Bravery, valor, discipline, superior 
civilization had won. 

While General Scott had been moving upon Mexico, General Stephen 
W. Kearney had left Fort Leavenworth with an army, marched nine hun- 




CHAPULTEPEC. 



dred miles across the plains, over mountain ranges, reached the valley of 
the Rio Grande, captured Santa Fe, and organized a provisional govern- 
ment for New Mexico, lie started for California; but a messenger met 
him with the information that Lieutenant-colonel Fremont and Commo- 
dore Stockton had taken possession of that country. 



350 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap.XXIV 




THE AKMY IN MEXICO. 



On February 2, 1848, the Mexican Congress concluded a treaty of 
peace with the American Commissioners at Guadalupe Hidalgo, surren- 
dering New Mexico and California to the United States, receiving in re- 
turn $15,000,000, and the United States agreeing to pay $3,500,000 to 
American citizens who had claims against Mexico. 

( mi July 4 President Polk proclaimed peace between the two countries. 
Thus it came about that the vast region from the Rio Grande to the Pa- 
cific, north of the present boundary, was added to the United States. 




{ku^SP^- 



:iwfj3r 



^W«t»v; 









• 



1776.] CAL1FOKNIA. 353 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CALIFORNIA. 

IN October, 1776, while Washington was getting ready to drive the 
British out of Boston, a company of friars from Mexico established 
a mission in California, which they named afer their patron saint — San 
Francisco. They built a church, set it off with red and yellow pictures, 
built a house, a blacksmith -shop, granary, and a store -house of bricks 
dried in the sun. 

They gave the Indians rings for their ears and red blankets, sprinkled 
them with holy-water, and set them to work. The garden seeds flourished ; 
cattle multiplied in the valleys — great herds which ran wild ; wheat grew 
luxuriantly. While the people of the United States were fighting for 
independence this far-away province of Spain was thus being settled. 

In 1807 a strange ship, with a crew wearing seal-skin coats, came down 
from the North with an ambassador from the Czar of .Russia on board — 
Count Von Resanoff, from Sitka. He was exploring the coast with the 
intention of founding a colony. The Spanish Governor of California had 
a beautiful daughter, with whom the count fell in love; but he could not 
marry her without the consent of the Czar. To obtain it he sailed back 
to Sitka, then across the Northern Pacific Sea to Kamtchatka, and started 
on the long journey through Siberia for St. Petersburg; but, before reach- 
ing there, fell from his horse and died from the injuries. When the sad 
news after many months reached San Francisco the governor's daughter 
in her grief became a nun, and spent her life in ministering to the sick. 

The Russians had established themselves in x\laska, and intended to 
take possession of the whole west coast of the continent. In 1S12, just as 
the war between England and the United States was beginning, one hun- 
dred Russians, with a large number of Indians from Alaska, sailed down 
the coast and began a settlement north of San Francisco. They set their 
traps along the streams for otter, and speared the seals that climbed upon 
the rocks along the coast. They married Indian wives, built a village of 

io^-huts, and a church. 
s \-2 



354 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXV. 



A messenger in 1822 reached Monterey with great news — that Mexico 
had thrown off the yoke of Spain and had become independent. What 




1*1 Idaho City 

? O BOISE ~* 



./^.i-rn,. City 

O/E K G O N 

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di ' o Jacksonville 







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V ^ysers t- H ^ fc r JS^TmsY^ .-V 

! rit« 



-AN 

FRANC! 



Stockto^ ""V 

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V ' Copprqpdl^s 



Santa Cf.U^Xjiiro^Vv?*, % 

''^I -^T^Visalia %% \ Callville 



uita Barbara ,/ 




Xonxitude AVest 40 from "Washington 







L O W E R h "^ — -.. 

N E W ^-/"^ ' 
v A ^ " ; \M E XI CO 



MAP OF CALIFORNIA. 



should California do? The generals of the four presidios, two captains, a 
lieutenant, and the bishop met at Monterey, and agreed to own allegiance 
to Mexico. 

The Indians out in the Sierra Nevada Mountains heard that the white 



1845.] CALIFORNIA. 355 

men had got rid of their chief who lived beyond the sea, and, as they had 
a chief whom they also wished to get rid of, they tied him to a stake, 
piled brush around him, and roasted him to death. Then they danced 
for a week. 

"What right have you to burn your chief?" demanded the friars of 
San Francisco. 

''You did not like your chief; we did not like ours: you got rid of 
yours; we have done the same. If our new chief is not good we will 
burn him too," they said. 

The Russians were tired of California. There was no winter. The 
furs which they obtained were of little value. A young man from Switz- 
erland came along, John A. Sutter, who bought their land, and they went 
on board a vessel and sailed back to Alaska, to enjoy themselves amid the 
fogs, ice, and snow of that country. 

There were so many cattle in the valleys running wild that the mer- 
chants of Boston sent their ships around Cape Horn to obtain their hides, 
which were taken to Massachusetts to be made into leather by the tanners 
and curriers of Danvers, and into shoes by the shoemakers of Lynn. 

The Hudson's Bay Company, with its head in London, its forts and 
trading-posts all over the north-western section of the continent, intended 
to control the trade of California, and established themselves on the coast. 
The men in London managing its affairs, and the men managing the 
affairs of England, were looking forward to the time when England would 
be in possession of all the country west of the Rocky Mountains; but their 
calculations were all upset by the agent whom they sent to San Francisco, 
who drank too much brandy, neglected his business, and ended his life 
by blowing out his brains. Just about the, time he did it some of the 
people of Missouri, impelled by a strange desire to be moving somewhere, 
with a vague idea of finding a land of riches, comfort, and happiness, re- 
gardless of hardships and hostile Indians, left their homes on the banks of 
the Missouri, packed their goods in wagons and on mules, made their way 
across the prairies, over lofty mountains and waterless plains — a long and 
weary journey of more than two thousand miles — and became citizens of 
California. 

John Charles Fremont, topographical engineer, in 1S45, with sixty-two 
men — Kit Carson, an old hunter, their guide — crossed the Rocky Moun- 
tains making explorations. Captain Fremont visited Governor Castro, at 
Monterey, California, and asked permission to rest a few days. Leave was 
given him, but soon countermanded, and he was ordered to leave the coun- 
try. He moved toward Oregon. While he was making his way north a 



nriLi>i.\<; THE nation. 



[Chap. XXV. 




.mas a 



messenger from Mexico reached California with the information that prob- 
ably war would soon begin between Mexico and the United States. 

The Americans who had made their way from Missouri to California 
were greatly Btirred by the news. They did nol like the Mexicans. They 
were only a handful, bill on duly 11. L845, they formed themselves into 



184(5.] 



CALIFORNIA. 



357 



a military company, elected Mr. Merritt captain, seized General Vallejo and 
all the other Mexican officers, and declared California independent of Mex- 
ico. For a flag they painted a black bear on a strip of white cotton cloth, 
and flung it to the breeze as the standard of the Republic of California. 

Commodore Sloat, with the frigate Savannah, was at Mazatlan, Mexico. 
The British ship Collingwood was also there. Commodore Sloat knew that 
Great Britain wished to get hold of all the country from British Columbia 
to Mexico, and he also knew that there was a prospect of war between 
the United States and Mexico. He was instructed by the Secretary of 
War, George Bancroft, not to wait for official notice of a beginning of 
hostilities, but at the first news was to take possession of California. 
From rumors that came to him, Commodore Sloat, July 7, 1846, landed 

at Monterey, hoisted the Stars and 
Stripes, tired a salute, and issued a 
proclamation that California was a 
part of the United States. He sent 
word to Captain Montgomery, com- 
manding the Portsmouth, at San 
Francisco, who also raised the flag 
there. Montgomery sent word to the 
men that had raised the flag with 
the black bear upon it, who pulled it 
down, hoisted the Stars and Stripes 
instead, swung their hats, and fired 
their rifles, by way of saluting it. 

It was all too soon. No one had 
any reliable news that war had be- 
gun, and Commodore Sloat wished that he had waited a little longer 
before hoisting the Stars and Stripes. 

Fremont had turned back from his march toward Oregon, and the 
Californians joined him. A few days later Captain Stockton arrived at 
Monterey in the frigate Congress ; and Commodore Sloat, wishing to re- 
turn home, placed Stockton in command, who determined to take pos- 
session of California and hold it. Fremont joined him. Stockton landed 
two hundred and fifty marines, who had six small cannon, and with Fre- 
mont marched to take possession of Los Angeles. General Castro was 
there, with a large force of Mexicans. 

"The town will be your grave if you attempt to enter it," was the 
word sent by Castro to Stockton. 

"Please tell General Castro to have the bells tolled to-morrow morn- 




JOHN CHARLES KRKMONT. 



358 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap.XXV. 




WHERE T1IK GOLD WAS HH Mi 



ing at eight o'clock, for at that hour I shall enter the town." was the 
answer <>f Stockton. 

Morning dawned, and the Americans entered the town, to find that 
Castro and the Mexicans had fled. There was ;i little fighting, but the 
Americans were victorious in all skirmishes, and the Pacific coast from 
San Diego to Oregon was added to the Republic. 



1848.] CALIFORNIA. 359 

The emigrant from Switzerland, John A. Sutter, who had bouo-ht the 
land of the Russians, began to build a saw- mill at Coloma. He hired 
James W. Marshall to dig a ditch to carry the water to the wheel. 

"I wonder what that yellow stuff is?" said Mr. Marshall as he threw 
up a shovelful of earth in which there were yellow particles heavier than 
earth. " I wonder if it is gold ?" . 

" I guess it is brass," said one of the workmen, who knew very little 
about brass or anything else. 

" I will see what vinegar will do to it," said Marshall. He put the 
particles into vinegar, but they suffered no change. 

It was on January 19, 1848, that these workmen speculated as to what 
the "yellow stuff," as they called it, was. 

" I am going to San Francisco, and will see what they say about the 
stuff down there," said Mr. Bennett, who went to San Francisco and 
showed it to Isaac Humphrey, who had worked in the gold-mines of 
Georgia. 

" It is gold," said Humphrey, who went to Coloma to see if there was 
any more. He filled a tin pan with earth, washed it in the brook, and 
discovered particles of gold at the bottom of the pan. 

The men building the saw-mill threw down their tools and went to 
whirling tin pans, filled with earth, in the brook. Mr. Sutter laughed at 
the idea of there being gold on his land. He was angry at the workmen 
for leaving his saw-mill unfinished. 

The news reached San Francisco, a village of twelve hundred people, 
many of whom hastened to Sacramento and on to Coloma; among them 
the editor of the San Francisco Star. He saw men shaking tin pans — 
nothing more. Perhaps he expected to see nuggets of yellow ore; but 
there was nothing that looked like gold. 

" It is all a sham," he said in the paper the next week. 

"A sham ! Oh no; here is half a pound of gold-dust which I have 
just purchased," said a man who had set up a jeweller's shop in San Fran- 
cisco. 

Everybody who came from New Helvetia, as Captain Sutter's place 
was called, brought gold-dust, which the jeweller bought — paying four 
dollars an ounce. The news spread. The carpenters and joiners of San 
Francisco threw down their tools; the blacksmith let the fire of his forge 
go out; clerks in the stores left their desks; salesmen dropped their yard- 
sticks; laboring men shouldered their shovels and started for the "dig- 
gin's." So many went that there was little to eat at New Helvetia. Some 
who went to dig gold returned to scour the country for food. Prices be- 



360 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



| Chap. XXV. 



gan to rise. In June and July gold-dust valued at two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars was received at San Francisco. Lieutenant Beale left 
Monterey with despatches for the United States, crossed Mexico, and 
reached Washington. 

"Rich gold-mines have been discovered in California," was the an- 
nouncement by the Baltimore 'Sun, September 20. 

The news was flying up and down the western coast to Panama, Cal- 
lao, Valparaiso, and the Sandwich Islands. Whale -ships at Honolulu, 







KI.MHN 'I D 



sailing home to New Bedford and Nantucket, carried wonderful accounts 
of the richness of the mines. Miners were making fortunes. Men who 
never had a dozen dollars at a time in their lives were becoming rich. 

Gold! In all ages men have been ready to sacrifice ease, comfort, 



1849.] 



CALIFORNIA. 



301 



happiness, home, friends, everything dear to obtain it. Soldiers who had 
marched to Mexico, fought at Buena Vista and Chapultepec, just dis- 
charged from the army, who had acquired a love for adventure, started 
for California. The news spread far and wide, exciting, as nothing else 
could have done, the people of every State. The men of Missouri, Illi- 
nois, Ohio, and Arkansas started in caravans from St. Louis. From New 
York, Boston, Salem, and Baltimore vessels took their departure laden with 
beef, pork, flour, tobacco, whiskey, shovels, tin pans — goods of every descrip- 
tion — and crowds of eager, restless men, who in imagination saw the ground 
yellow with gold, and fortunes awaiting those first on the spot. A gold hun- 
ger seized the community. "For California" read the signs of scores of 
vessels in the seaports. By February, 1849, ninety vessels had sailed, carry- 
ing eight thousand men. Seventy ships in addition were preparing to un- 
furl their sails for the voyage of seventeen thousand miles around Cape 
Horn. Bakers could not supply the demand for ship- bread; day and 
night their ovens were glowing. Tinsmiths sat up nights to manufacture 
tin pans. Gunsmiths could hardly supply the demand for rifles and pis- 
tols. The hardware merchants could not till their orders for picks and 
spades. Never had there been such a call for thick -soled boots. Com- 
panies were formed to fit out expeditions. Those who could not go sub- 
scribed to the stock. Those who went and those who helped them go 
alike expected to make their fortunes. 




MINERS CABINS. 
12* 



362 BUILDING THE NATION. [Cum-. XXV 

Newspapers began to publish wonderful accounts of the richness of 
the soil iu gold, stimulating the imagination of the multitude hungry for 
gold. Ministers, seeing their parishioners departing, preached against un- 
due desire for wealth, which added fuel to the flame. Sober-minded men. 
who at the outset counselled their friends not to go, in a few weeks were 
themselves on the way. Ministers who had preached against the gold- 
fever as sinful joined the increasing throng of emigrants. Men who had 
comfortable homes, well- cultivated farms, who had passed the prime of 
life, saw in imagination the hanks of the Sacramento gleaming with 
golden sands; they sold all for what it would bring, and made their way 
to the far-off land of promise. People from Mexico, Peru, Chili, England, 
Fiance, ( rermany, Ireland — energetic, determined, reckless of life — thieves, 
vagabonds, ruffians, gamblers, joined the swelling tide. Into the Golden 
Gate sailed the white-winged ships. By midsummer more than four hun- 
dred vessels were lying at anchor in the Bay of San Francisco — mosl of 
them deserted. The sailors had run away, and were in the mines or at 
work on shore on their own account, earning more in a day than they 
could in a month on shipboard. The captain might command them, but 
was powerless to compel their return. 

Over the mountains streamed a long line of weary, worn, poverty- 
stricken men — hungry for gold, more hungry for bread. Thousands 
dropped by the way never more to rise. Their comrades laid them in 
shallow graves and hastened on. From the Missouri to the Pacific shore 
the route was marked by the bleaching bones of oxen, mules, and men. 

Greater the hurly-burly with every arrival. San Francisco, which had 
two thousand people in 1848, had twenty thousand in 1849 — a city of 
shanties and tents — a jostling, hurrying crowd. The number increased so 
rapidly that in October, 1850, California was admitted as a State to the 
Union, yielding, between 1848 and 1850, $500,000,000 in gold. 



1777-1846.] OREGON. 363 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

OKEGON. 

TTTHEX Elizabeth was Queen of England, and England and Spain 
* * were at war, Sir Francis Drake captured so many Spanish vessels 
that people spoke of him as "singeing the beard of the King of Spain." 
On his third voyage to the coast of South and Central America he landed 
on the Isthmus of Darien, climbed the mountains, and beheld the Pacific 
Ocean. He fell upon his knees and thanked God, and made a vow that 
if his life was spared he would navigate its peaceful waters in search of 
new lands. In 1578 he sailed from England with five ships — the smallest 
of fifteen tons, the largest, the Golden Hind, of one hundred and twenty 
tons. Some of the vessels were lost; the captain of another turned back 
to England ; but Sir Francis kept boldly on, rounded Cape Horn, captured 
many Spanish ships, filling the Golden Hind with gold and silver from 
the mines of Peru, and silks and satins taken from Spanish vessels sailing 
homeward from China. He kept on northward till in June he found him- 
self in a broad, deep bay, which, so far as can be ascertained, was the Bay 
of San Francisco. 

He named the country New x\lbion. 

Two hundred years passed, during which Spanish vessels sailed up 
the coast to Mendocino, and on to the Strait of Fuca — trading with 
the Indians. 

Wbile Congress, in Philadelphia, 1770, was issuing the Declaration of 
Independence, Captain James Cook was sailing from England witli two 
vessels — the Resolution and Discovery. 

"Yon are to proceed," read his instructions, "to the coast of New 
Albion, and explore it northward to the Arctic Sea, and to take pos- 
session of the country in the name of the King of England." 

He reached Xew Albion, saw a point of land, which he named Cape 
Flattery. He did not know that lie had sailed past the mouth of a great 
river, or that the inlet at Cape Flattery was a wonderful arm of the sea, 
running far into the land, with deep bays and spacious harbors. He sailed 



364 



buildim; the nation. 



[Chap. XXVL 



on to Nootka Sound, where the sailors sold their old clothes to the Indians 
and exchanged buttons and knives for the beautiful fur of the sea-otter — 
making themselves soft beds. 

Captain Cook sailed to the Sandwich Islands, where he was killed by 
the natives. The ship kept on to Canton, in China. 




MAP (IK I'l '.I 1 SOI \l' 



To tlic astonishment of the sailors, the Chinese were ready to pay a 
great price for the furs they had obtained in exchange for their old coats 
and trousers — more than their wages for the entire voyage amounted to. 

The Resolution and Discovery reached England, and an account of 
the voyage was published. A copy of the book fell into the hands of Doc- 
tor Bulfinch, who lived in Bowdoin Square, Boston. It was in 17*7. His 



1777-1*46.] OREGON. 365 

near neighbor, Mr. Barrel, spent an evening with him, and Duetor Bnltinch 
read this passage from the interesting volume: 

" The sea-otter abounds at Nootka Sound. The fur is softer and finer 
than any other. The skins are sold by the Russians to the Chinese for 
from sixteen to twenty pounds ($80 to $100) each." 

" There is a rich harvest to be reaped by those who first go into that 
trade," said Mr. Barrel, who saw that by sending vessels to the west coast 
of North America with fish-hooks, trinkets, buttons, knives, red and yellow 
blankets- — -bright-colored articles — and exchanging them for furs: then 
sailing to China and exchanging the furs for silk and tea, to be sold in 
Boston, much money might be made. 

Mr. Barrel laid his plan before several of his friends, who joined him 
in fitting out the ships Columbia and Washington. The vessels reached 
Nootka Sound. Captain Kendrick remained with the Washington on the 
coast; while Captain Gray, with the Columbia, sailed to China, sold his 
furs, purchased a cargo of tea, and sailed for the United States by way 
of the Cape of Good Hope. 

In August, 1790, the people of Boston saw the Columbia sailing into 
the harbor — the Stars and Stripes flying at the mast-head — the first vessel 
that had carried the banner of the new nation around the globe. 

In six weeks the Columbia was once more on the sea, sailino- around 
Cape Horn and up the coast. On May 11, 1792, Captain Gray saw the 
white waves breaking on a sand-bar, where the waters were in turmoil, 
waves rolling in — a great current of fresh-water pouring into the sea. He 
crossed the bar, and found himself entering one of the great rivers of the 
globe, which he named the Columbia. 

The Indians flocked around. Captain Gray treated them kindly, told 
them that he came from Boston, and ever after the Indians called the 
Americans " Boston men." 

Captain Gray was charmed by the scenery — dense forests of pine and 
cedar, lofty mountains — Mounts Baker, Hood, and Rainer, twelve thousand 
feet high, their summits white with snow. The river swarmed with 
salmon. 

"The first vessel entering the mouth of a river gives title, by right of 
discovery, to the territory drained by all the tributaries of that river." 

That was the doctrine of Great Britain which she had laid down and 
enforced. Accordingly, the United States could claim all the vasl region 
of the North-west beyond the Rocky Mountains up to latitude 5U -tO' — 
the most northern source of the Columbia. 

In "Old Times in the Colonies" there is a chapter upon the "Forces 



:;.;.; 



MJILDINi: THE NATION'. 



[Chap. XXVI. 



of Civilization," showing among other things how the desire to wear soft 
and beautiful fur has been a great foree in the history of our country. To 
obtain furs the Dutch settled New York, the French Canada. The Eng- 
lish saw how the Dutch and French were making money by trading with 




rNDIANS SPEARING SALMON. 



the Indians, and organized the Hudson's Bay Company, which Charles II. 
chartered in 16*19. The North-wesl Trading Company also was organized. 
Forts and trading-posts were built all over Canada and the country easl 
of the Rocky Mountains. 

When Jefferson was President, he sent, in 1804, Captain Lewis and 
Captain Clarke up the Missouri to explore the country which had been 
purchased from France. They were to cross the Rocky Mountains and 
descend the great river which Captain Cray had discovered. They reach- 
ed the country of the Mandan Indians — where the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road now crosses the Missouri — and there spent their lirst winter. North 
of the Mandans, on the Assiniboine, the Hudson's Bay Company had a 
trading-house, and the agent, Mr. McKcn/.ie. made a visit to Lewis and 
Clarke. He had sharp eyes, and was looking keenly after the interests 
of the Hudson's Ray Company. He senl word to the officers in London 



1777-1846.] 



OREGON. 



367 



that the country be} T ond the mountains on the Columbia was rich in furs 
— a great hunting-ground, which must be occupied by the Hudson's Bay 
Company, or the Americans would get possession of it. 

Over the mountains, through the country of the Nez Perces (Pierced 
Noses), Lewis and Clarke made their way down the great river to the sea, 
spending their second winter near where Captain Gray had dropped 
anchor. 

In 1806 the ships Vancouver and Pearl and the brig Lydia, all from 
Boston, were in the Columbia, trading with the Indians. Every year ves- 
sels entered the great river, the Indians always welcoming the Boston 
men. 

An energetic, far-seeing man in New York was turning his attention 
to this far-away region — John Jacob Astor, who was born in Germany in 
1763, and who when he was sixteen years old went to London, where he 
had a brother, who was selling violins, flutes, drums, and other musical 
instruments. The boy wanted to do a larger business. Why not go to 
America? He crossed the Atlantic, bought furs in Montreal or wherever 
he could find them, and turned over his money to such good advantage 
that in a short time he had two hundred thousand dollars. He sent the 
ship Tonquin to the Columbia. A trading-post was established, which was 
named Astoria. 

Alas for the ship and those on board ! It was commanded by Captain 




MOUNT RAINER. 



Thorn, who, against the orders of Mr. Astor, allowed a large number of In- 
dians on board. Suddenly there was a terrible yelling. They knocked 
Mr. McKay on the head with a club, killed Captain Thorn, but not till 



::r,s 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXVL 



lie had killed their chief. Mr. Lewis was stabbed, but with four sailors 
reached the cabin, barricaded the door, seized their guns, and shut so many 
of the Indians that the rest lied to the shore. Night comes, and the foui 
sailors jump into a boat, intending to reach Astoria. Mr. Lewis will not 




\liil NT BAKER. 



go with them. He has another plan. Again the Indians surround the 
ship. They see no white man. They climb the side-, and dance the deck 
in frantic joy. Down below in the magazine sits the wounded man, bid- 
ing his time to be revenged. Hundreds of Indians are on the deck. 
There comes a flash, a roar, and deck', masts, spars, cannon, boxes, barrels} 
and the ureat crowd of Indians rise high in air, and rain down into the 
sea. The vessel disappears, the waves roll over the scene. Hundreds of 
Indians have perished. 



1777-1846.] OREGON. 371 

War began between England and the United States. Mr. McDongal, 
whom Mr. Astor had taken as partner, was from Canada. He sold Astoria 
to the North-western Fur Company for a song. A British ship arrived in 
the Columbia River, pulled down the Stars and Stripes and hoisted the 
British flag, taking possession of all the vast territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains. The Hudson's Bay Company and the North-western Fur 
Company became one. They built forts and trading-posts as far south as 
San Francisco, intending to hold all the country for Great Britain. 

In 1S32 four strange Indians from beyond the Rocky Mountains made 
their appearance in St. Louis. 

" We have heard," they said, " of a wonderful book from heaven, and 
have come to get it." 

Who told them ? Had a trapper, while catching beaver along the 
mountain streams, informed them that what made the white men so power- 
ful was a book given by the Great Spirit? Or had they learned it from 
the Indians who lived along the Missouri ? No one knows, but the story 
had gone down deep into the hearts of the Nez Perces. They talked about 
it in their wigwams. Long was the journey to the country of the white 
men — more than two thousand miles — but they must have the book. A 
chief and four warriors started, and readied St. Louis. 

Captain Clarke, who had passed through the country of the Nez Perces 
in 1805, was still living to welcome them. He took them to his church, 
and also to the theatre. The Indians were disappointed. 

"We come," said the chief, "with one eye partly opened; we go back 
with it closed. Our people sent us to get the book which came down from 
heaven. You took us where we saw your people worship God with can- 
dles: the book was not there. You took us. to see your women dance: the 
book was not there. Our women do not dance. We go back without the 
book, and our people will die in darkness." 

The Indians departed, but only the chief reached home to tell the tribe 
that he had not found the book; the others were killed by hostile Indians. 

"A strange affair! Four Indians from the Nez Perces, beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, have been here to obtain the Bible," wrote a young man 
in St. Louis to Mr. Catlin, in Pittsburg, who had been out among the In 
dians of the far West, painting their portraits, which are now to be seen 
in the gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington. 

" Is it true what I hear?" asked Mr. Catlin of Captain Clarke. 

" It is true," Captain Clarke replied. 

Mr. Catlin told the story to warm-hearted men; and when Captain 
Wyeth started, in 1834, with a caravan to open trade with the Indians 



372 BUILDING THE NAl'ION. [Chap.XXVI 

along the Columbia, Jason and Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and T. L. Ed- 
wards, sent by the Methodist Board of Missions, accompanied him to estab- 
lish a mission in Willamette Valley, Oregom With Captain Wyeth, also, 
were the Rev. Samuel Parker, of Ithaca, New York, and Dr. Marcus Whit- 
man, of Rushville, New York. 

Captain Wyeth built a trading-post on Snake River, and named it Fort 
Hall. The Xez Perces heard that the white men were there, and came to 
see them. One of the Xez Perces was named Ish-hol-hol-hoats-hoats, who 
could talk so fast and so well that the Americans called him " the lawyer." 
lie liked the Americans, but did not like the men sent by the Hudson's 
Bay Company. 

Mr. Parker went with him to explore the country and select a good 
place for a mission, while Dr. Whitman turned back to the States, to lind 
men and women who would he willing to brave the dangers and hardships 
of the wilderness to give the Bible to the Indians. 

" I will be here to meet you next year," said Ish-hol-hol-hoats-hoats. 

Go to the Rocky Mountains to teach Indians! It was too far away, 
too many dangers and hardships, were the objections which the young min- 
isters in the theological seminaries made when Dr. Whitman asked if they 
would go. 

The American Board of Missions was establishing a mission among 
the Indians in Kansas, and Henry Herman Spalding, of Prattsbnrg, New 
York, near Lake Canandaigua, who had just married Eliza Hart, of the 
same town, were going there. The young wife was tall and slender; she 
had mild blue eyes, but was of resolute spirit. 

The young missionary and his bride had bade good-bye to their friends 
and were on their way. It was in March, and the snow was still lying 
along the road; in a few days it would be gone, and they would need 
wheels, so their carriage was hall' sleigh, half wagon— a wagon body on 
runners, the wheels ready for use at any moment. They were riding 
westward. Suddenly they heard a "Halloo!" from a man behind them. 

"I want you for Oregon." It was Dr. Whitman who had called to 
them. 

" For Oregon ! How long a journey is it 8" 

"The summers of two years.*' 

"What convoy shall we have?" 

"The American Fur Company to the mountains; beyond that our 
selves." 

"What shall we live on!" 

" Buffalo, till we can raise our own grain." 



1T77-1846.] OKEGON. 373 

" How shall we go?" 

" On horseback." 

" How cross rivers ?" 

" Swim the in." 

Mr. Spalding turned to his wife. • 

u My dear, my mind is made up, but will leave it for you to decide." 

They rode on to a tavern, and the young wife went away by herself 
to pray. Hardship, suffering, privation, danger, sickness, separation from 
friends, home, all dear old things — possibly death on the one side ; on the 
other, duty, obligation, carrying the Bible to those who had called for it, 
lifting the degraded, bringing life and immortality to light, their earthly 
and eternal welfare. 

Out from the tavern chamber came the woman — a few weeks a bride 
— with a glory on her face. 

" I will go." 

" But your health ?" said the husband. 

" I take the command just as it stands — ' Go ye into all the world and 
preach the Gospel to every creature.' " 

" But the perils — you don't begin to know how great they are." 

" The danger and the weakness are His — the duty mine." 

" The Indians will take you prisoner. You will never see your friends 
again." 

It was the husband who was weak. Tears were rolling down his 
cheeks. 

"What mean you to weep and break my heart? I am ready, not to 
be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, or in the Rocky Mountains, 
for the Lord Jesus." 

It was the voice of Paul echoing down the ages. It was settled. Not 
Kansas, but Oregon, was to be their home. 

Dr. Whitman rode on to the town of Angelica, to a large old farm- 
house, where a fair and lovely young lady, Narcissa Prentis, became his 
bride. A few weeks later and the two young men and their wives, with 
William II. Gray, were in St. Louis, buying horses, two wagons, camp 
kettles, tin plates, a frying-pan. dippers, garden 3eeds, a quart of wheat, 
and such things as they needed for their outfit. 

The agent of the fur company with whom they were to travel did not 
want to be bothered by missionaries and women, and purposely left them 
behind, going up the Missouri by steamer to Council Bluffs. He had been 
gone five days when the missionaries reached that outpost of the frontier. 
They started on, but had many mishaps. When crossing the Missouri in 



374 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XXVL 

a ferry-boat a cow jumped overboard, and Mr. Spalding, trying to prevent 
her, went head-foremost into the river. Their cattle ran away, and they 
had hard work to collect them. 

"We never shall get there," said Mr. Spalding. "We shall have to 
go back." 

" I have started for Oregon, and expect to get there," was the reply of 
his intrepid wife. 

The traders were obliged to halt, and the missionaries overtook them. 
Day after day the long line moved on f over the treeless, far-reaching 
plains. 

The delicate woman who had been so resolute to go — Mrs. Spalding — 
found her strength failing. She reached Fort Laramie. 

,% You must stop here. You will die if you attempt to go on," said 
Captain Wveth. 

" I started to go in the name of my Saviour, and shall go on," was her 
reply. 

Far away she could see the peaks of the mountains. On July 4 — 
anniversary of the birth of the nation — the bugle sounded the reveille, 
and the caravan moved on, but Mrs. Spalding was too weak to mount her 
korse. 

" Leave me. I shall die here. t Tell mother I am glad I came." 
The caravan moved up the long swell of land to the South Pass — 
the divide between the Atlantic and the Pacific The missionaries and 
the fainting woman had been left behind. The captain was troubled. He 
could not go on without them. Back over the prairie rode a party of 
horsemen to bring them on. Mrs. Spalding had gained strength. Once 
more she was in the saddle. They reached the divide where the caravan 
had halted. The hunters fired their rifles, and the missionaries kneeled 
upon the green grass, with the Bible in one hand and the Stars and Stripes 
in the other, ottered prayer, and sung a hymn. 

They were on the western boundary of the territory purchased by Jef- 
ferson from Louisiana. Who ownc.d the conntn beyond? The Hudson's 
Bay Company had its forts and trading-posts on the Columbia, and in- 
tended to hold all the vast region for Great Britain, notwithstanding Cap- 
tain Gray had discovered the Columbia. These two intrepid nii>sionaries, 
on the sixtieth anniversary of the nation's birthday, kneeling upon the 
earth, with loyal hearts, fervid prayers, and undying faith, in the name of 
Almighty God took possession of it for the American people for all com- 
ing time. 

Beyond the South Pass, on Green River, whose waters flow to the 



1777-1846.] 



OREGON. 



377 



&fm 



Gulf of California, a great number of Indians had gathered, among them 
Ish-hol-hul-hoats-hoats and a company of Nez Perces, who had come hun- 
dreds of miles to meet the men and women who were bringing them the 
"Book" which had been given by the Great Spirit. The Nez Perces women 
dug strengthening roots for Mrs. Spalding. The Indian fishermen hastened 
to the streams to catch the speckled trout. They shot the grouse in the 
wild sage that she might have something sweet and tender to eat. 

The caravan reached Fort Hall, the point for which it had been fitted 

out. Beyond that the missiona- 
ries must make their way alone, 
accompanied only by the Nez 
Perces. 

"You never can get to the 
Columbia with your wagon ; you 
may as well leave it here. There 
are impassable mountains," 
said the agent of the com- 
pany. 

Dr. Whitman thought 
differently. He would 
try. On over the dreary 
plains, cutting a path 
through sage-brush, cross- 
ing rivers in boats made 
of buffalo hides stretched 
on sticks, they made their 
way ; and on November 
29 the missionaries and their 
wives, wagon, and horses were on the 
banks of the Columbia. Dr. Whitman 
built a house at Walla Walla with the 
< lay use Indians, while Mr. Spalding went on one hun- 
dred and twenty miles farther, to live with the Nez 
Perces. At Fort Vancouver were Mr. Lee and his 
associates — not teaching the Indians, but the children 
of the men employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. 

The agent of the Hudson's Bay Company did not care to have Ameri- 
cans settling in Oregon, and disturbing their profitable trade with the In- 
dians, who never could comprehend the mystery of the steelyard in weigh- 
ing furs, or how it was that the Company always had the best of the bar- 




MYSTERY OK THE STEEL- 
YARD. 



378 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXVI. 



gain. He wanted only French Canadians and half-breeds, who would 
limit and trap, make long inarches, live ou small pay, and be dependent 
on the company, and who would hold the country for Great Britain. 

Two members of the society organized by Ignatius Loyola (see "Story 
of Liberty "), Father Blanche t and Father Demerse, made their appearance 

on the Columbia. They told the 
Indians that the missionaries were 
heretics. It was the renewal in' 
Oregon of the conflict that had 
drenched Europe in blood — the 
eomiict of two religions and two 
civilizations. 

" The Boston men intend to take 
away your land," said Demerse to 
the Indians.* 

" We do not come to take away 
your land, but to teach you how to 
cultivate it," said Dr. Whitman, who 
sowed the quart of wheat which he 
brought from Missouri, gave the 
Indians garden seeds, showed them 
how to till the soil, and cared for 
them when sick. 

October, 1842, came. Dr. Whit- 
man was in the Hudson's Bay Company's fort at Walla Walla, giving medi- 
ciue to an Indian. The agent of the company invited him to dinner, and 
he sat down to a long table with trappers and one of the Jesuit priests. 
A messenger entered with the news that a large company of French 
Canadians had made their way across the plains and mountains. They 
hud conic to make a settlement. 

"Hurrah! The United State- are too late. The country is ours!" 
shouted the priest, clapping his hand-. 

The United States too late! A great thought like a lightning-flash 
came to Dr. Whitman — that there was a deep-laid scheme to hold Oregon 
for Great Britain. 

"We have got possession of Oregon, and no power can take it from 
us," said the agent of the Hudson's I lay Company. "Sir George Simp- 
son, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Territory, is on his way to Washington 









J .- " s 


.$%& 




iPHnl 


v 


$%*??' \jtjm' \ 


lyfc. 


■ 


WMJi ! 








Ms & 


W&-M < 


9S.ijJrfe ' 


%5^25 







CAKE FOR A SICK I\M IN. 



* Grav'a " Biston of Oregon," p. 183. 



X777-1846.] OREGON. 381 

to negotiate a treaty with the American Government, and Oregon will be 
given to Great Britain. The settlers are here ; the country is ours, and 
you cannot prevent us from having it." 

" I will see," was Dr. Whitman's quiet reply. 

Over the plains of the Columbia in hot haste, his horse afoam, he rode 
on that afternoon. A great thought was seething in his brain — a mighty 
resolve taking possession of him. He leaped from his saddle at the door 
of his log-house. 

" I am going to Washington," he said. 

" To Washington !" 

" Yes, to bring settlers to Oregon, and show up a deep-laid scheme 
which must be defeated." 

" You cannot get there. It will be impossible at this season of the 
year; you will perish," said his wife, astounded at his words. 

" I must go. Oregon must be saved to the United States." 

Twenty-four hours later he is on his way, on horseback, with a single 
companion, A. L. Lovejoy. Their rifles are slung to their shoulders. They 
have provisions enough to take them to Fort Hall. Their horses must 
feed upon the dried grass. They have no tents; the earth will be their 
bed at night. Over the blue mountains, across the lava-beds of Idaho, 
swept by November winds, they make their way — four hundred miles — to 
Fort Hall in eleven days. From there it is two hundred and fifty miles 
south-east to Fort Uintah. A trapper guides them over the Uintah 
Mountains, along gloomy defiles, through deep canons, across treeless 
plains. They swim rivers filled with floating ice. They are in a country 
of hostile Indians, and must be ever on the watch. Terrible storms come 
on. They wade through deep snows. The guide loses his way. For ten 
days they wander. 

" I am lost," said the guide. 

" You stay and feed the horses on cotton-wood bark, and I will find 
the fort," said Dr. Whitman. 

They remained in a cotton-wood grove, and he departed, reached the 
fort, obtained provisions, fresh horses, another guide, returned, and pushed 
on to the Grand River, which farther down becomes the Colorado. It was 
six hundred yards across it, and the water frozen far out from the shore. 
In the middle the current was sweeping dark and deep. 

"We cannot cross it," said the guide. 

" We will try." 

The doctor mounts his horse, and Mr. Lovejoy and the guide push the 
animal into the swirling, ice-cold stream. The current bears them away. 



;JM' 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXVL 



Will not Ik use and rider be chilled to death before they gain the other 
shore? Terrible the suspense. They reach the ice on the farther side; 
the doctor springs from his saddle, the horse leaps upward; they are 
safe. Mr. Lovejoy and the guide follow, and cross in safety. They kindle 

a fire, rub their horses dry, and push 
on. For thirty days they are amid 
the mountains, threading their way 
along the gloomy defiles of Colo- 
rado, killing one by one their pack- 
mules for food, climbing lofty moun- 
tains, wading through deep snows, 
emerging at last into the valley of 
the Rio Grande, finding themselves 
at Santa Fe. 

On the coldest day of the year, 
January 13, 1S43, Dr. Whitman and 
Mr. Lovejoy and their guide are on 
the mountains between the Rio 
Grande and the head-waters of the 
Arkansas River. The cold is in- 
tense. A terrible snow-storm comes 
on. Their mules refuse to climb the 
steep ascent. The travellers see their 
peril : the} 7 must go back and wait till 
the storm is over. They attempt to 
return, but their tracks are covered 
by the "whirling snow. Dr. Whitman commends him- 
self to the care of Almighty God, and lies down in 
the snow, never, so far as he can see, to rise again. 
Has he come so far to perish at last? Are all his 
heroic efforts to save Oregon to his beloved country 
to result in failure? The guide is watching his mule. lie notices that 
the animal is working his ears in a peculiar way. 
"The mule will take us out!" he shouts. 

They spring to their feet, give the mule his liberty. Down, down they 
go, through deep drifts, along frightful precipices — the mule picking its 
way — down into the forest. The guide falls. Dr. Whitman and Mr. 
Lovejoy leave him, following the mule, which suddenly stops, and they 
find themselves at the place where they camped the night before. The 
brands of their last night's fire are still burning. They pile on fresh wood, 




SCENE is SANTA FE. 



1777-1846.] OREGON. 3S3 

warm themselves a moment, and then go back, and bring in the guide. 
They chafe his frozen feet with snow and wrap him in their blankets till 
life and strength return. Day after day the storm howls through the 
forest. When milder weather conies they climb once more the mountain- 
side, cross its lofty summit, descend the eastern slope, and reach Bent's 
Fort, on the Arkansas. Mr. Lovejoy is so exhausted that he can go no 
farther; but after a few clays' rest Dr. Whitman is in the saddle, riding 
down the valley. A few weeks later he is in St. Louis. 

April comes, and a man with unshaven face, haggard, worn, emaciated, 
wearing coat, pantaloons, and cap of buffalo fur, stands before Daniel 
Webster, Secretary of State, at Washington, who has just made a treaty 
with Lord Ashburton, for Great Britain, defining the boundary from Nova 
Scotia to the Rocky Mountains. No mention of Oregon is made; the 
question as to who owns it is left unsettled. 

" I have come from Oregon to lay before you the importance of secur- 
ing that country to the United States," said the man from the West. 

" Indeed ! But Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay 
Territory, informs me that the whole country is of little value," said Mr. 
Webster. 

" I have lived in Oregon six years, and know to the contrary. It lias 
great value." 

" Sir George Simpson informs me that it will be impossible ever to 
get there with a wagon." 

" On the other hand, I have taken a wagon there." 

So runs the report of the interview between Dr. Whitman and Daniel 
Webster. 

John Tyler was President, and Dr. Whitman hastened to see him. 

"I have made my way from Oregon to Washington, braving every 
danger, to prevent the consummation of a scheme which will give one of 
the fairest sections of our country — which is ours by right of Captain 
Gray's discovery — to Great Britain. I would save it, with its mighty 
forests, far-reaching plains, its great rivers, its unparalleled resources, to 
our beloved country." 

" Your journey, encountering such hardships and dangers, is a con- 
vincing argument of the value of that territory. You shall have every 
encouragement to take settlers there," was the warm-hearted response of 
the President. 

From the Missouri westward winds a train of two hundred wagons, 
and a company of eight hundred emigrants, under the lead of Dr. Whit- 
man, escorted and protected by United States soldiers. The caravan 



384 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap.XXVI. 





or 



"*«\_ : ' reaches Oregon. The emi- 
aiSfflr grants rear their houses, tak- 

ing permanent ])ossesssion. 
It was in 1837 that Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spald- 
ing- and their wives began their labors among the 
Indians. Great the change. Then the Indians were 
living in wigwams, without a hoe, plough, cattle, 
clothing, except the skins of beasts; living on fish and jerked meat. 



t&^r • 



IMF. MOUNTAINS. 



1777-1846.] 



OREGON. 



385 



Ten years passed, and the Indians were living in houses. The one quart 
cf wheat had become thirty thousand bushels in 1847; the two cows had 
become a herd. Sheep were feeding on the hills. Roses and flowers of 
every hue were blooming in the gardens cultivated by the Indians. From 
school-houses came the sweet music of live hundred children learning to 
read. Their language had been reduced to writing. A government had 
been established ; a code of laws adopted. Sunday was a day of rest and 
worship. Men once naked were wearing decent clothing. Women and 
girls could spin and weave. Men and boys had learned to set types and 




JERKED MEAT. 



print school-books, a code of laws, a Christian hymnal, and the Gospel by 
Matthew. In ten years the savage had become thus far a citizen. 

The picture changes. "The Jesuit priests" (states the "History of 
Oregon," p. 3G7), "co- laborers with the Hudson's Bay Company, did not 
hesitate to poison the minds of all who would listen to them against the 
Protestant missionaries and all their efforts. Neither did they hesitate as 
to the means so long as a certain object was to be accomplished. . . . The 
American missionaries and settlements must be driven from the country. 
. . . ' Dr. Whitman had better leave the country, or the Indians will kill 
him. We are determined to have his station,' said one of the priests." 

The blow fell. Dr. Whitman had been visiting a sick Indian, and 
was sitting in his own house reading the Bible, when an Indian came be- 
hind him, lifted a tomahawk, and buried it in the doctor's skull. It was 
the signal for the massacre to begin. The Indians rushed upon the white 
people. Mrs. Whitman was kneeling by her husband. A ball pierces her 

Vc 



386 BUJLDLNG THE NATION. [Chap. XXVI 

breast, she clasps lier hands in prayer, and commends her soul to her Sav- 
iour. Flashing of guns, hacking with knives, the floor thick with blood, 
a heap of mangled corpses, houses pillaged, Indians daneiDg in savage 
glee, swine devouring the bodies of the dead, women and children fleeing 
in terror — Jesuit priests and agents of the Hudson's Bay Company refus- 
ing them shelter — that the scene ! 

The self-sacrificing missionary, the true patriot, and his wife are dead, 
and the mission broken up; but the conspiracy has a different ending 
from what the priests had planned. 

Oregon, thus far, had been under a joint occupancy by Great Britain 
and the United States; the time had come to end such a state of affairs. 
The settlers drove the Indians to the mountains, organized a government 
of their own, elected their own officers, and asserted the superior authority 
of the United States over the territory — thus finishing the work begun by 
Dr. Whitman. Through his patriotism, hardship, self-denial, and untiring 
zea l — through the energy and determination of the settlers upon the banks 
of the mighty river — the vast domain from California to British Columbia 
was secured to the United States forever. 



1848.1 



COMPROMISE Oi l«o0. 387 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

DURING the first years of the century many people in the slave-hold- 
ing States looked forward to a time when slave labor would become 
unprofitable, which would in turn bring about emancipation. But the 
world was calling for more cotton. Spindles were humming in Great 
Britain and New England as never before. The planters were increasing 
their acres, and slaves were in great demand. So valuable were they that 
Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee began to raise slaves, 
just as a farmer raises cattle, sheep, and pigs for the market. Slave-trad- 
ers made up their coffles in Baltimore, Washington, and Louisville, sepa- 
rating husbands and wives, parents and children — regardless of prayers. 
and tears — and taking the slaves to Charleston, Savannah, and New Or- 
leans, the great slave-markets of the South, where they were resold to the 
planters. The auction -rooms \vere large halls. The slaves stood on a, 
high bench, wearing very little clothing, that the purchaser might see 
whether the men were strong of limb, and how beautiful of form were 
the women and girls. The dealers examined their mouths to see if their 
teeth were sound or to ascertain if they were past the prime of life. They 
handled the women and girls indecently. 

From the auction-room they went to the plantation to work in the cot- 
ton-fields, beneath the broiling sun, driven by a brutal overseer sitting on 
a horse, with a whip in his hand, which he delighted to crack over them, 
or to bring down upon the back- of any one. that lagged. The weak and 
feeble must keep up with the strong in wielding the heavy hoe. When 
the lields were snow-white with the bursting bolls they must perform their 
allotted tasks in picking; the baskets must be full and running over: the 
number of pounds specified for a day's work to be tipped by the steel- 
yards, or in default they would be flogged. 

When work for the day was done they went to the comfortless cabins 
to cook their supper of bacon and hominy, sleeping on a pile of straw, 
with a single blanket to cover them ; to be aroused in the early morn- 



388 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXVll. 



ing by the blowing of :i horn, to begin again the dreary round of unre- 
quited toil. 

For them no joy, no hope in life. The heart of the father or mother 
might ache for children from whom they had been separated in Virginia, 




IliKIll BASKETS H I. 



but for them there was no comforter. At the bidding of the master the 
men must take other women to be their wives, and women other men to 
be their husbands. The marriage relation could be made or broken by 
the master at any time, lie could deal with them as with his cattle. 

The planters were growing rich, and with wealth came increase of 



1848.] 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 



389 



power. They looked down upon the poor white people — kept poor by 
coming in contact with slave labor. Work was a sign of degradation. 
For a white man to labor was to put himself on a level with the slave. 
Thus there came to be a class of poor but proud people who spent their 
time at the groceries or lounging around the county taverns, ever ready to 
take a drink of whiskey when invited by the planters, who purchased their 
votes on election-day. With no opportunity to better their condition in 
life they lost all ambition. There were no schools for their children, who 
grew up in ignorance, and whose chief delight was to visit the shire towns 
when the judges held court, or attend the races when the planters and 
jockeys tried the speed of their horses. 

The mechanic arts could not flourish under such conditions. Where 
labor was regarded as degrading there would be no building of steam- 
engines, founderies, or manufactories. Without education there could be 
no good joiners, carpenters, or blacksmiths. When human beings could 




A^IAYtH.St 



be bought and sold there would be no employing of machines to do the 
work of human hands. So it came about that the houses were little bet- 
ter than cabins — those even of the planters being poorly constructed. 
The wagons, carriages, stage-coaches built by Southern workmen were 
rude and clumsy. Ploughs, hoes, harrows, boots, shoes, cloth, pianos — all 
were manufactured in the Northern States. The slave-holders sneeringly 



390 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXVII. 



called the working-men of the North "mud-sills," because they were at 
the bottom of society. 

Instead of slavery being an evil, they regarded it as a blessing. 
"Slavery." said the Rev. Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, in a Bermon, 
"has fashioned our modes of life and determined all our habits of thought 

and feeling, and moulded the very type of 
our civilization." 

James II. Thornwell, of South Carolina, 
doctor of divinity, and nearly all the minis- 
ters in the Southern States, preached that 
slavery was a divine institution, ordained of 
God for the well-being of the human race; 
that slavery was honorable and a necessity; 
that it had come from the patriarchs, regu- 
lated by the law of Moses, sustained by the 
prophets, and was authorized by Jesus Christ, 
because it existed when he was on earth and 
he said nothing about abolishing it; there- 
fore it was right. Moreover, the Apostles 
upheld it. 

w - We must teach," said Mr. De Bow — not 
a minister — "that slavery is necessary in all 
societies, to protect as well as to govern the 
weak, poor, and ignorant. ... To protect the 
weak we must first enslave them. . . . Sla- 
very is necessary as an educational institu- 
tion, and is worth ten times all the common 
schools of the North." 
With the increase of slaves came additional political power, and the 
slave-holders looked forward to a time when they would make themselves 
masters of the whole country, controlling the government, and administer- 
ing it in the interests of slavery. The annexation of Texas and the war 
with Mexico were brought about with that end in view. 

When the war with Mexico was over the President sent a message 
to Congress for an appropriation of money to pay for the territory to be 
acquired from that country, lb' asked for two million dollars, lie had 
been elected by the Democratic party, which controlled Congress. It is 
customarv for a party to sustain the men elected by the party; but in free 
governments those who make laws must think and act for themselves, or 
government will no longer be free. Then' were several members of Con- 




POOR BUT PROUD. 



1848.] 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 



591 



gress belonging to the .Democratic 
party who were thinking for them- 
selves on a great question : Mexico 
had abolished slavery ; and would 
it be right, after obtaining territory 
from that country, 
to prevent the intro- 
duction of slavery? 
Hannibal Hamlin, 
of Maine ; Preston 




SOI Nil RN -Nil El .-MM. 



King, of New York; and David 

Wilniot, of Pennsylvania, talked 

the matter over, and decided that 

it would not be right to permit the 

introduction of slavery into territory once free; and Air. Wilmot moved 

that the bill appropriating money for negotiating a treaty should contain 

this condition: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever ex- 



392 



miLIHXU THE NATION. 



[CiiAi-. XXVII 



ist in any part of said territory." It is known in history as the Wilmot 

proviso. 

The position taken by these and other members of Congresp was an 
assertion, on their part, that they would thin 
and act for themselves on the question < 
slavery. It was the beginning of long 
heated discussions. 

Little did General Zaehary Tay- 
lor think, when he saw the Mexicans 
retreating from 
Buena Vista, leav- 
ing him master of 
the field, that the 




\ III ai.i I'AVERN \M> STAGE-! 0A< II. 



1848.] 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 



593 




A PLANTATION TEAM. 




if . 



American people would reward him by making him President, but he was 
nominated to that office by the Whig party. In the Whig newspapers he 
was called " Old Rough and Ready," because he was inured to the hard- 
ships of camp life and was always ready for battle. He was inaugurated 
March 4, 1849 ; but died of fever July 9, and 
Millard Fillmore became President. 

Things had come about very strangely in 
California. The far-off region, almost un- 
known before 1849, suddenly swarmed with 
people, who assembled in convention and 
asked to be admitted to the Union as a free 
State. The gold-hunters were mostly from 
the Northern States, and hated slavery. Cali- 
fornia a free State ! The slave-holders would 
not listen to such a proposition. California 
was south of the southern boundary of Mis- 
souri, which had been adopted as the boundary between slavery and free 
(loin in 1820. Members of Congress from the slave-holding States threat- 
ened to dissolve the Union if slavery were excluded from California. 

In the Southern States there was no deep and abiding love for the 

Constitution. The Southern people exalted the rights of the States, and 

13 




MILLAIM) FILLMORE. 



394 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXVII. 

accepted the doctrine put forth by Jefferson in 1798, that the Union was 
only a compact between the States (see page 118). The people in the 
States which had abolished slavery, on the other hand, were beginning to 
see that under the Constitution the Union would in time become the great- 
est nation on earth. Bitter speeches were made in Congress, and articles 
were published in the newspapers so fiery that the men who wrote them 
were called " fire-eaters." 

" Slavery is a great moral, social, political, and religious blessing," said 
Albert G. Brown, of Mississippi. 

"Antislavery men are the outcasts and offscourings of the earth — a 
pestilential set of vipers that ought to be destroyed," shouted Mr. Savage, 
of Tennessee. 

"Georgia should march to Washington and dissolve the government," 
said Governor Troup, of that State. 

A compromise was proposed — to admit California as a free State, and 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia— which, it was claimed, ought 
to satisfy the people of the free States. To conciliate those who were 
threatening to secede from the Union, it was proposed to pass a law which 
would enable the slave-holders to recapture the slaves which had escaped 
into the free States. John M. Mason, of Virginia, prepared the law for 
recapturing fugitives. It provided that the master, or his agent, might go 
into any State or Territory, with or without a legal warrant, seize the fugi- 
tive, and take him before any judge or commissioner, who must examine 
the proof that he was a slave, and use all the power of his office to send 
him back if he had ever been a slave. The fugitive could not say a word ; 
his evidence must not be admitted. The master's oath that. the fugitive 
was a slave was sufficient evidence. The sheriff might call upon any citi- 
zen to help him, and the citizen must obey or be amenable to the law. 
Democrats and Whigs alike, from the slave-holding States, threatened to 
dissolve the Union if slavery were excluded from the Territories. 

The slave-holders, the members of Congress from the Southern States, 
claimed that the Constitution must respect and protect property in all 
States alike. If they could not recover a slave escaping to another State, 
just as they would a horse, they were deprived of their constitutional 
rights. If they could not have their rights secured and enforced under 
the Constitution, of what value was the Union '. Mr. Mason, who framed 
the bill, knew that the non-slave-holding States could not be compelled to 
enforce the law. but that the United States courts, judges, marshals, and 
commissioners — those appointed by the President— only could be called 
upon to execute it. 



1850.] COMPROMISE OF 1850. 395 

Daniel Webster, who had favored the Wilmot Proviso, wanted to be 
President, and possibly thought that if he were to advocate the passage 
of the Fugitive Slave Bill it would bring peace to the country, and that 
the people in their gratitude would elect him to the high office. He 
made a speech in favor of it, wielded all his great influence to secure its 
passage, and it became a law September 9, 1850. 

This law made it a crime to aid a slave to escape, and it was also a 
crime to refuse to aid the marshal in sending a fugitive back to slavery. 
The people of the Northern States had great respect for law, but this was 
antagonistic to all their instincts. Some of the people of Massachusetts 
informed Daniel Webster that it was odious, hateful, and cruel. 

"You must conquer your prejudices," he said. 

The people replied by holding meetings and resolving to resist the 
law, in obedience to the higher law of obligation to right, justice, and 
liberty. The law carried slavery into the free States, made it national, 
and they were determined not to tolerate it. 

Nineteen years had rolled away since the imprisonment of the young 
printer in Baltimore for writing an article against slavery. The world 
had been moving the while. In Europe there had been great uprisings 
for freedom, while in the United States moral forces had been quicken- 
ing the hearts and consciences of men for a larger and freer life. Me- 
chanical forces, inventive genius, the employment of machinery through- 
out the Northern States to do the work of human hands, the arrival of 
many thousand emigrants from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, 
to find homes in the Western States — these influences combined were 
lifting the Northern States to a loftier plane of civilization; while the 
poor white people of the South, under the blighting influence of slavery, 
were sinking to a lower level. 

The members of Congress from the Southern States threatened to 
dissolve the Union if the Fugitive Slave Law was not executed. Mer- 
chants in New York and Boston trading with the South became greatly 
alarmed, and organized " Union-saving" meetings. In New York a com- 
mittee of one hundred was appointed to solicit money to aid the slave- 
catchers. If merchants declined to sign it, their names were put upon a 
black list and sent South, to notify the planters not to trade with them. 

The "Union-saving Committees" brought their influence, to bear upon 
learned doctors of divinity to gain their support; and Moses Stuart, of 
Andover, Massachusetts, and Nathaniel Taylor, of New Haven, professors of 
theology; Nathan Lord, President of Dartmouth College; Bishop Hopkins, 
of Vermont; Nehemiah Adams, of Boston; Orville Dewey, of New York — ■ 



390 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXVIL 



all doctors of divinity — preached that the Fugitive Slave Law must be 
obeyed. 

Other ministers equally learned regarded the Bible as the book above 





WJA/iiL. ■■'- 



^>^- .— xv«i 



IIKM1V \\ Al.l> BEECHER. 



all others that set forth the equality of men — their right to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness — and preached vigorously in favor of free- 
dom and the right ami duty of the people to resist the law. 

Of those who wielded great influence were Henry Ward Beecher, of 
Brooklyn, and Theodore Parker, of Boston. 



1850.] 



COMPROMISE OF 18,10. 



397 



" When we have ceased to pray," said Mr. Beecher, " when we have 
rooted out the humanities which, since our connection with the Gospel, 
have been growing within us — when we have buried our Bibles and re- 
nounced our God — then will we join with those whose patriotism exhibits 
itself in robbing men of every natural right, and in driving them from 
light and religion into heathenism." 

"Why shall I not help the fugitive?" asked Richard S. Storrs, of 
Brooklyn. "There is nothing to prevent but the parchment of the law. 







THEODORE PARKER. 



But where will this parchment be when I meet this my brother in the 
judgment? Where will that parchment be when Christ shall say to me, 
'I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat?'" 

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book entitled - Uncle Tom's Cabin," 



898 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXVII 

which, above all other books produced in the United State?, was influential 
in moulding and directing public opinion. A theatre manager saw that 
its incidents were dramatic, and produced it as a play. The instincts and 
sympathies of the people who witnessed its nightly performance were all 
on the side of the slave. They clapped their hands when the sturdy farm- 
ers rushed between the fugitive and the slave-hunters, keeping them at 
bay with pitchforks and pistols. So the pulpit and theatre became allies 
of freedom. 



1851-1659.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 3i>9 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 

"ORE than thirty thousand slaves, it was claimed, had escaped to 
Northern States and to Canada. Those in Canada were beyond 
the reach of their masters; but those in the Northern States could be 
taken back under the Fugitive Slave Law. 

As soon as the law was passed the hunters were on the track of the 
fugitives. At Columbia, Pennsylvania, lived a colored man — William 
Smith — who had a wife and two children. Two officers came to take 
him, and when he attempted to run one drew a pistol and shot him dead. 
No one arrested the murderer, and nothing came of it. 

As the testimony of a negro could not be taken under the law, it was 
easy for slave-h miters to arrest free negroes and sell them into slavery. 

Two kidnappers from Elkton, Maryland, went to the house of Mr. 
Miller, in Nottingham, Pennsylvania, and seized a colored girl. 

" She is free," said Mr. Miller ; but the kidnappers hustled her into 
their wagon, took her to Baltimore, and locked her up in a slave-pen. Mr. 
Miller followed, brought her case before the court, and the judge decided 
that she was free. Mr. Miller started for his home, but never reached it — 
his lifeless body being found the next day dangling from a tree. The 
kidnappers had murdered him. 

John de Bee, of Norfolk, learned that his slave Shadrach had fled to 
Boston, and was serving for pay as a waiter in the Cornhill Coffee-house. 
lie determined to recapture him. He went before George T. Curtis, 
United States Commissioner, and swore that Shadrach was his slave. Mr. 
Curtis issued a warrant for the arrest of Shadrach, who was seized by the 
marshal and taken before the commissioner. The news flew over the city. 
A crowd of colored people hastened to the court-room. The marshal 
would not admit them, and they stood upon the stairs. Lewis Ilavden 
gave a signal, the door flew open, ami Shadrach disappeared in a twink- 
ling; and neither the commissioner, master, nor marshal ever saw him 
airain. In a few hours he was in Canada. 



400 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXV 111. 

"What is to be clone?" was the question telegraphed to President Fill- 
more by the marshal ; whereupon Mr. Fillmore issued a proclamation com- 
manding all persons — citizens as well as civil and military officers — in 
Boston to aid and assist in carrying out the law; and the Secretary of 
War and Secretary of the Navy were also directed to render all possible 
help. 

Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was greatly shocked at what had happened, 
and offered a resolution in the Senate calling on the President for infor- 
mation upon this outrage. "A negro mob," he said, " has dared to lay 
sacrilegious hands, in the sanctuary of justice, upon the very sword of 
justice itself, and wave it over its officers and ministers." 

Mr. Clay had claimed that the slavery question was settled — that there 
would be no more discussion ; but he himself was discussing it more 
vehemently than ever. Congress might as well have resolved that Ni- 
agara should stop running. 

Lewis llayden and live others were arrested and tried for aiding 
Shadrach. 

" I saw," testified one witness, " Shadrach helped into a carriage, which 
was traced over Cambridge Bridge and into West Cambridge, where he 
was put into another carriage and driven to Concord, and then put into 
a wagon and driven over to Sudbury." 

Eleven of the jury voted llayden guilty of aiding Shadrach. One 
juryman — Francis E. Bigelow — would not vote to convict. The court 
thought it strange, for the testimony was clear. Not till years had passed 
did Francis E. Bigelow tell why he voted as ho did. This was his reason: 
"I myself drove that wagen over to Sudbury." 

Thomas M. Simtns was a fugitive in Boston. His master, James Pot- 
ter, came from Georgia to obtain him. and had him arrested first for steal- 
ing. Samuel E. Sewell, a lawyer and friend of the slaves, called upon the 
United States Marshal, Patrick Riley, asking when the trial was to take 
place; whereupon the marshal had him arrested and put into the watch- 
house. To keep the crowd away, ami to prevent any attempt at rescuing 
Simtns, he had heavy chains put around the court-house, and a great num- 
ber of policemen, with clubs in their hand.-. The judges of the State courts 
could not reach their rooms only as the policemen lifted the chains, and 
then they were obliged to stoop. 

"He must go back," said the commissioner. At five o'clock in the 
morning, before the people were astir, three hundred armed policemen 
inarched him to Long Wharf and put him on board the schooner Acorn, 
which took him back to slaverv. 



1851-185'J.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 



401 



Anthony Burns was claimed as a runaway by Charles F. Tuttle, of 
Virginia. Edward G. Loring, United States Commissioner for Boston, 
issued a warrant for the arrest of Burns. There was a consultation am oner 
the men opposed to the law. 

" If Burns is taken from Boston, then Massachusetts is a conquered 
State," said Wendell Phillips. 

" We must fight," said Francis W. Bird. 

" We have been called cowards, and if we permit Burns to be taken 
we shall rightly bear the reproach," shouted John L. Swift. 

"Virginia reaches her arms over the graves of our mothers and kid- 
naps men in the city of the Puritans," were the words of Theodore 
Parker. 

The marshal had sworn in a great number of rough men as deputy 
United States officers, and placed them in the court-house, to prevent a 
rescue. A crowd gathered — friends of the slave. Among the white men 
were T. W. Higginson, John L. Swift, and Albert Gr. Brown. They seized 
a timber and battered down a door. The policemen flourished their clubs 
and drew their pistols, rushed upon the people, driving them back; but 
in the melee one of the policemen, James Batchelder, was unfortunately 
killed. 

" The evidence is clear that Anthony Burns is the property of Charles 
F. Tuttle," was the decision of the commissioners. 

Through State Street, over the spot where Crispus Attucks, a colored 

man, was shot by British soldiers in behalf 
of liberty before the Revolutionary War — 
within sight of Faneuil Hall — marched the 
soldiers of Massachusetts, with cannon, pow- 
der, and ball, accompanying the policemen 
guarding Anthony Burns, with manacles 
upon his wrists and tears upon his checks. 

President Pierce has anticipated what 
the decision will be. He will show the 
slave-holders that he will execute the law, 
and has ordered the revenue-cutter Morris 
to be ready to take Anthony Burns back to 
Viiginia. The slave- hunters hear hisses 
and groans from the multitude. The sol- 
diers executing the order of the mayor hear them, and the blood mounts 
to their cheeks; they are only obeying orders; their hearts are beginning 
to throb as never before for freedom. 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



402 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXVIII. 

" Let ns pray." 

It was the voice of the Rev. Daniel Foster; and the crowd, ceasing to 
hiss and groan, stood with uncovered heads while he prayed that God 
Mould be with the slave going back to his bondage, and that the event 
would be so overruled that it would purify and redeem a country that was 
showing itself recreant to human freedom. Down the harbor sailed the 
vessel; back to their counting-rooms and workshops walked the people, 
more than ever determined to resist the odious and iniquitous law. 

A slave-hunter arrested Joshua Glover at Racine, Wisconsin, who re- 
sisted and was terribly pounded. The marshal took him bleeding to Mil- 
waukee and put him in prison. 

The people, indignant at the cruelty of the marshal, marched to the jail. 
" Release him !" they shouted. The marshal had no idea of giving him 
up; whereupon they battered down the door, released the slave, and sent 
him to Canada. 

The slave-hunters, determined to have their revenge, arrested Sherman 
M. Booth and several others, but were baffled by the decision of the Su- 
preme Court of the State, which decided that the Constitution of the United 
States conferred no power upon Congress to legislate upon the subject of 
the surrender of fugitives from labor. Not to be defeated, the slave-hnnt- 
ers brought a suit in the United States District. Court of Wisconsin, which 
sentenced .Mr. Booth to pay a tine and be put in jail; but a judge of the 
Siate Court issued a writ of habeas corpus, and all the judges of the 
court united in ordering his discharge, and the people escorted him home 
with a band of music, flinging their hats into the air. 

Very different was a scene in Cincinnati, where Margaret Garner, 
rather than have her little child taken back into slavery, seized a butcher's 
knife and cut her daughter's throat from ear to ear. She was tried for 
murder, but the judge decided that the claim of her master was para- 
mount, and, instead of being punished for murder, she was taken back 
into slavery under the Fugitive Slave Law. 

A number "I' negroes escaped from Kentucky, and built their cabins 
at Young's Prairie, Michigan. They were so far from Kentucky that 
they felt themselves secure; but their masters, learning where they were. 
determined to recapture them. Thirty men on horseback, with two large 
wagons, started for Michigan. They intended to seize the fugitives and 
carry them to Kentucky without going through the form of law. One of 
them was a minister, who wanted to secure his former slaves, a husband 
and wilr. 

At night, when the negroes were asleep, the slave-hunters surrounded 



1851-1859.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 405 

their cabins, breaking down the doors. There were desperate struggles, 
but the slave-hunters were powerful, and soon had many of the negroes 
in irons. The minister began to batter down the door of the cabin occu- 
pied by his slave, who seized a stick of wood to defend himself. His wife, 
leaving him and her babe, crept out of a back window and ran to the 
house of Zachariah Shugart. Zachariah was a white man, a Quaker, who 
did not think it right to use guns and pistols; but he dressed himself very 
quickly, leaped upon his horse, and flew like the wind down the road to 
let William Jones, the blacksmith, know what was going on, who in turn 
aroused all the neighbors. 

The Kentuckians the while, with the negroes handcuffed in their 
wagons, were starting for home — the minister carrying the negro babe in 
his arms. The child had been born in a free State, and under the law was 
free, but it would be worth two hundred dollars in Kentucky. The min- 
ister was a kidnapper as well as a slave-hunter. 

Suddenly the caravan came to a halt, for in the road, blocking the 
way, stood William Jones, Stephen Bayne, and their neighbors, armed 
with pitchforks, axes, and stakes. The Kentuckians drew their pistols 
and bowie-knives, which, instead of frightening the Michigan people, 
made thein more determined than ever to fight. 

" Charge ! Kill the kidnappers !" shouted the blacksmith. 

The Kentuckians, finding how determined the people were, and know- 
ing that they were kidnappers, did not dare to fire, and the blacksmith 
and his neighbors compelled them to march to Cassopolis, to answer the 
charge of kidnapping. 

" Get off from that horse," said the blacksmith. 

The minister obeyed, and he had the farther mortification of seeing 
his own slave get into the saddle, with the help of the blacksmith, while 
he had to walk and cany the babe in his arms. 

" Here is the man who kidnaps babies!" shouted the blacksmith as they 
marched into the town. The people laughed and jeered, and pointed their 
lingers at the minister. 

Instead of marching proudly back with their slaves, the Kentuckians 
found themselves in the hands of the sheriff, who marched them off to jail 
for kidnapping. 

When at last they got out the negroes were all in Canada; their long 
journey had been for nothing, and they had their jail fees to pay besides. 
They found that kidnapping was not profitable in Michigan. 

The law became more hateful than ever to the people of the Northern 
States, who were on the lookout for slave-hunters, and ready to help the 



40G BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXVIH. 

fugitives on to Canada. There were collisions with the officers <>f the 
law all over the country, and disturbances, which set the people t<» think- 
ing more earnestly than ever upon the great question of human freedom. 

The slave-holders complained that the law was of no benefit to them, 
for it cost more to recover slaves than they were worth. It was dangerous 
to own a negro who had once been free; who had stories to tell of the 
sweets of freedom ; of friends in the North who would help them ; of 
Canada, where their masters could not touch them, where no blood-hounds 
could follow their track, where they could be their own masters. The 
neighboring planters objected to having such a negro near their planta- 
tions to make their slaves uneasy. So it came about that the law, while 
irritating the people of the Northern States, was of no particular benefit 
to the slave-holders. 



1854-1859.] KANSAS. 40f 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

KANSAS. 

OVER the wide prairies west of Missouri and Iowa onward to the 
Rocky Mountains roamed the Kansas and Nebraska Indians. There 
were no white men except hunters following the buffalo in all the vast 
domain. But the time had come when the solitude was to teem with 
life. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, introduced a bill into Congress in 
1854 opening the lands to settlement. 

The slave-holders had a far-reaching plan to make Kansas a slave State. 
To do so they must first bring about the repeal of the law of 1S20, which 
prohibited slavery in Territories north of the southern boundary of Mis- 
souri. If that law were repealed the people of Missouri would take pos- 
session of the Territory, with their slaves, elect two senators to Congress 
and representatives, which would enable the slave-holding interest to con- 
trol the government. 

" The Missouri Compromise," said the slave-holders, "is wrong. Un- 
der the Constitution we have the right to go to Kansas with our property. 
If Northern men can take their horses and cattle to Kansas, we have the 
same right to take not only our horses and cattle, but our slaves, for the 
Constitution makes no distinction in property. We are unjustly deprived 
of our rights. The law must be repealed." 

Was it because Stephen A. Douglas wanted to be President, and wished 
to have the slave-holders think well of him, that he wielded all his powers 
to secure the repeal of the law? Through his influence, and that of his 
friends of the Democratic party in the Northern States, the law was 
repealed. The people of Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 
while the discussion was going on in Congress, formed .societies and lodges, 
calling themselves "Sons of the South," to make Kansas a. slave State. 

The bill organizing the Territory of Kansas became a law. Over the 
wires Hashed the news; and the "Sons of the South," mounting their 
horses, hastened to Kansas, selected their lands, drove down their stakes, 
and rode back to Missouri again. By driving down their stakes they had 



408 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



LChap. XXIX. 



made known their intention of being- settlers; and when the time came 
for voting would be at the polls, though citizens of Missouri. 

Men whose sonls were on fire with the great idea of putting an end 
to the encroachments of slavery on soil once free began to act. In .Mas- 
sachusetts an Emigrant Aid Society was formed, with Amos A. Lawrence, 




STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 



Eli Thayer, and J. M. S. Williams for its trustees, to aid and assist any 
one who would emigrate to Kansas. ''Committees"' were organized in 
towns, counties, and State-, raising money to colonize towns in the new 
Territory. A national committee was organized. Among its members 
were Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois; Gerrit Smith, of New York; and 
G. L. Stearns, of Massachusetts. The first party of Free-state emigrants, 



1854-1859.] 



KANSAS. 



409 




GERRIT SMITH. 



from Boston, staked out a town, naming it Lawrence, and went to their 

new homes singing, to the air of "Auld Lang Syne," a song written by 

John G. Whittier : 

•' We cross the prairies as of old 
The Pilgrims crossed the sea, 
To make the West as they the East 
The homestead of the five 

" We go to rear a wall of men 
On Freedom's Southern line, 

And plant beside the cotton-tree 
The rugged Northern pine. 



410 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



| t ii. vi-. XXIX. 



"We go to plant her common schools,' 
On distant prairie swells, 
An. I give the Sabbaths of the wilds 
The music of her bells." 

Among the emigrants were John Brown and his six sons, from North- 
tin New York, who selected farms at Ossawattomie. When the time came 
to hold die tirst election, David R. Atchinson, Senator in Congress from 






m 




1IOMK <>Y WIIITTIKK. 



Missouri, stirred up the Missourians to invade Kansas and vote; and sev- 
eral thousand of them mounted their horses, rode into the Territory armed 
with rifles and revolvers, and voted. 

The Leavenworth Herald announced the result: 

"All hail! Pro-slavery party victorious! Come on, Southern men; 
bring your slaves and fill up the Territory. Kansas is sound ; Abolitionism 
is rebuked ; her fortress stormed ; her flag draggling in the dust." 

The pro-slavery men formed a "Vigilance Committee" to send all 
Free-state men out of the territory. 

They seized William Phillips, who would not, leave, shaved his head, 
stripped off his clothing, daubed him with tar, ripped open a bed and rolled 
him in the leathers, mounted him on a rail, and sold him at a mock ane- 



1854-1859.] KANSAS. 411 

tion. They put the Rev. Pardee Butler upon a raft of two logs, and set 
him adrift in the Missouri. 

The Legislature elected by the Missourians voted that the law of their 
own State should be adopted entire — changing the words " State of Mis- 
souri " for " Territory of Kansas." To make Kansas an undesirable place 
for a man opposed to slavery, they passed a law that if any one said any- 
thing against slavery, or if found with a newspaper or book about him 
that said anything against slavery, he should be imprisoned two years and 
put to hard work, with a chain and cannon-ball six inches in diameter riv- 
eted upon one of his ankles. 

Every member of every succeeding Legislature, every judge of elec- 
tion, every officer, every lawyer, every juryman must swear to uphold 
slavery. 

The liberty-loving settlers determined not to submit to such a code 
of laws forced upon them by the men who lived along the border of Mis- 
souri, and who became known as " Border Ruffians." 

They elected delegates to a convention which met at Topeka, and 
formed a Constitution. 

"Drive out the Abolitionists!" It was the war-cry of the "Ruffians." 
Armed bands invaded the Territory, robbing and plundering the Free-state 
men, shooting Charles W. Dow, and murdering in cold blood Thomas W. 
Barber. Whittier, far away on the banks of the Merrimac, recognizing 
him as a martyr to freedom, sung his requiem : 

" Bear him, comrades, to his grave ; 
Never over one more brave 

Shall the prairie grasses weep, 
In all ages yet to come, 
When the millions in our room 

What we sow in tears shall reap." 

The Border Ruffians claimed the lands staked out by the Free -state 
men, for whose arrest warrants were issued. 

The Governor, Wilson Shannon, was ready to do what he could to 
make Kansas a slave State. He ordered out the militia to aid the marshal 
in ejecting the Free-state men, who organized by choosing Charles Rob- 
inson for their general. They would fight for freedom. 

The "Kansas Aid Committee" purchased rifles and ammunition for 
the settlers. They could not send them up the Missouri River on steam- 
boats, for the Missourians searched every boat, and they were sent by 
teams through Iowa. 

A pro-slavery grand jury indicted the two Free-state papers published 



412 BUILDING THE NATION. [CHAP.XX1X. 

at Lawrence; and the deputy -marshal of the United States, with eight 
hundred men and four cannon, inarched into the town, destroyed the 
printing-presses, threw the type into the streets, set Mr. Eldridge's hotel on 
fire, and pillaged the houses of the people. The troubles increased. Some 
of the Free-state men, burning to avenge their injuries — seeing that the 
Governor, appointed by the President, was doing what he could to help 
the pro-slavery men — took matters into their own hands, fell upon the 
Missonrians at Potawatamie, and killed five of them. The Missourians, to 
be revenged in turn, organized a company, and chose Captain Pate as their 
commander. He had come from Virginia to help make Kansas a slave 
State. He crossed the boundary with fifty men, seized John Brown, Jr., 
put him in chains, inarched him across the prairie beneath the hot sum- 
mer sun — so inhumanly treating him that he lost his reason and became 
a raving maniac. 

John Brown, the father, heard how his son had been abused. lie 
called his steadfast friends around him, and organized them into a com- 
pany. There were twenty-seven of them. They came upon the Missouri- 
ans in a grove of small, scrubby black oaks, which the settlers called 
"Black Jack," near the present village of Palmyra. Captain Pate saw 
them approaching, and arranged his wagons in a semicircle, posting his 
men behind them. Captain Brown directed twelve of his company to at- 
tack in front, while he and the other fourteen were to gain the rear of 
the Missonrians. When they were far away the Missourians began to 
tire. Captain Brown dropped on his hands and knees and crept through 
the grass. 

" Take good aim. Don't waste your fire. Don't expose yourselves," 
he said to his men. 

Their rifles began to crack, and the fire became so uncomfortable that 
Captain Pate's men began to run away. Some of Captain Brown's men 
also ran. Captain Pate had been very valiant when he invaded Kansas; 
but he had not calculated upon being attacked. lie was getting tired of 
lighting, and tied his white handkerchief to a stick for a Hag of truce. 
All but eight of Brown's men had fallen back; but with those lie marched 
up and took Pate and twenty-two men prisoners, twenty-three horses, all 
their wagons, guns, and supplies. 

Another company of Missonrians, one of them a minister, seized one 
of Captain Brown's sons. shot, then stabbed and hacked him with their 
knives, and tumbled his mangled body into his own house before his young 
wife, who from that moment became a maniac. 

Little did they know what the outcome of that ghastly scene would 



1854-1859.] 



KANSAS. 



413 



be - , how the father of the murdered man, transformed from that moment, 
would go marching down the ages — leader of Freedom's hosts ! Captain 
Brown attacked them at Ossawattomie, and made so brave a fight that 
people called him " Ossawattomie Brown." 

Civil war had begun. Houses were pillaged and burnt, men shot in 
cold blood. Everybody carried arms. The Missourians stopped all steam- 
boats ascending the Missouri, and examined all the passengers. If they 




CHARLKS SUMNER. 



were pro-slavery they were allowed to go on, and if Free-state men they 
were turned back. John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, was appointed Gov- 
ernor, and upon reaching Kansas wrote to the President of the state of 
affairs : 

" Desolation and ruin reigned on every hand. Homes and firesides 



414 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIX. 



were deserted; the smoke of burning dwellings darkened the atmosphere. 
Women and children, driven from their habitations, wandered over the 
prairies and among the woodlands, or sought refuge and protection among 
the Indian tribes." 

A company from South Carolina, under Major Buford, bearing a red 
flag, with the motto, " South Carolina and State Rights," went to Kansas 
to help make it a slave State 

There were heated discussions in Congress. Charles Sumner, Senator 
from Massachusetts, made a speech on the "crime against Kansas," which 

so enraged Preston S. Brooks, member of 
Congress from South Carolina, that he enter- 
ed the Senate Chamber, where Mr. Sumner 
was writing, and with a heavy cane pounded 
Mr. Sumner's head till he fell insensible and 
bleeding to the floor. Mr. Toombs, Senator 
from South Carolina, and Mr. Douglas, f mm 
Illinois, were in the Chamber, and instead of 
interfering beheld the scene with evident de- 
light. 

The assault created great indignation in 
the Northern but was rapturously applauded 
in the Southern States. 

By the Northern people Mr. Brooks was 
called a "ruffian "and "bully," while the Southern people regarded him as 
a hero. He received many canes as presents from gentlemen, many floral 
gifts from ladies. 

The Whig party had dissolved, and the Republican party was organ- 
ized in the Northern States to resist the ao-a-ression of slaverv, nominating, 
in 1S56, John C. Fremont for President. The Democratic party elected 
James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania. 

In Kansas the struggle between the Free-state and Slave-state men 
was still going on — the Government of the United States under Franklin 
Pierce and under James Buchanan wielding its power to make it a slave 
State. 

Another election came round, and a great number of Missourians 
marched into the Territory to vote. They thought it a good joke to give 
their names as Henry Ward Peecher, Horace Greeley, William II. Seward, 
James Buchanan. They took along an old directory of the city of Cin- 
cinnati, and cast one thousand ballots on names which they read off to the 
clerk of elections. 




.1 OIKS BUCHANAN. 



1854-1859.] KANSAS. 415 

On May 19, 1858, on the bank of a little river, Marais des Cygnes 
(Marsh of the Swans), three miles from the Missouri line, appeared twenty- 
seven Border Ruffians. The settlers were ploughing their tields in peace. 
They never had taken part in the troubles, but they wanted Kansas to be 
a free State. 

"You must come with us," said the Border Ruffians, compelling eleven 
of the men to go with them. They were in a deep ravine — the men, un- 
armed, offering no resistance. 

"Make ready!" It was the order of the Ruffian captain — Charles 
Hamilton. "Take aim! Fire!" 

Twenty-seven rifles and revolvers flashed. Four of the citizens fell 
dead, the others, all but one, were wounded. The murderers rode away ; 
but their thirst for blood not being satisfied, they returned, kicked the 
dead, fired once more at the wounded, and then galloped back to Mis- 
souri to boast of their morning's work. The news of the appalling 
atrocity flashed over the country, stirring once more the soul of the 
peaceful Quaker poet far away on the banks of the Merrimac : 

"A blush as of roses, 

Where roses never grew ; 
Great drops on the bunch-grass, 

But not of the dew ; 
A taint in the sweet air 

For wild bees to shun ; 
A stain that shall never 

Bleach out in the sun." 

Into Missouri marched John Brown and the little band of men who 
called him captain. 

"Would you like to be free?" was the question which he put to the 
slaves. Freedom ! No other word so sweet. The master and mistress 
might be kind, they might have plenty to eat, but they would leave all 
for freedom. He started North with fourteen negroes. After him, in 
hot haste, rode the marshal of the Territory with thirty men — stimulated 
by the offer of three thousand dollars reward by the Governor of Mis- 
souri, and two hundred and fifty dollars by James Buchanan, President, 
for the arrest of John Brown. 

Toward a log-cabin occupied by Brown rode the sheriff, but suddenly 
halted, for he saw the muzzles of rifles peeping through loop-holes. 

"Come on, gentlemen, if you wish to," was the hail from the cabin — 
a pleasant voice, with no bravado. 

But the sheriff did not care to go on, neither did those who a moment 



41C 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXIX. 



before had been very brave, they rode away instead ; and when night 
closed in the negroes were inarching across the prairie toward the North, 
never again to call any man master. 

The slave-holders saw that the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery 
in the North-west territory (see p. 21), stood in the way. The Supreme 
Court could decide whether a law was or was not constitutional. The 
judges decided that that ordinance and the "Compromise of 1820," exclud- 
ing slavery from the territory north of 36° 30', were botli unconstitutional ; 




WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery anywhere; that negroes 
were not citizens of the United States; that they had no rights which 
white men were bound to respect. 

The people of the free States stood appalled before the decision. They 
began to see as never before the aggressions of slavery, and its eternal 
antagonism to freedom. 

Abraham Lincoln — born in a log-cabin in Kentucky, learning to read 
by rlic pitch-knot tire blazing on its hearth; who had wielded the axo 
and beetle in cutting down trees and splitting them into rails; who had 
paddled a Hat-boat on the Mississippi ; who had become a successful law- 



1854-1859.] KANSAS. 417 

yer, loved and trusted by everybody, kind-hearted, a man of the people 
— addressed his fellow-citizens of Springfield upon the great question of 
the hour, and said : 

" ' A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this govern- 
ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not ex- 
pect the Union to dissolve, but I do expect it will come to be divided. 
It will become all one thing or all the other." 

William H. Seward, senator from New York, addressing his friends 
at Rochester, spoke of the antagonism between slavery and freedom as 
an " irrepressible conflict." 

For five years — from 1854 to 1859 — the struggle in Kansas goes on, 
till the slave-holders, seeing how insecure was their property in slaves — 
baffled in all their plans, out- voted — gave up the struggle ; and Kansas, 
dedicated forever to freedom by the heroism and patriotism of her sons, 
was admitted to the Union as a free State. 



418 BUILDING THE NATION. £Chaf. XXX 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 

IT was a strange railroad. It had no locomotive, no rails, no cars. It 
ran in the darkness. It was invisible. Its operations were so secret 
that people called it the " Underground Railroad." Its charter was from 
Almighty God — the instincts of men against oppression and wrong; the 
aspirations of the human race for liberty. 

The Underground Railroad ran from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, 
and Tennessee — from all the Southern States — to Canada. It had no cor- 
porate existence, no board of directors, no organization. Levi Coffin, of 
Indiana, had the name of being its President, because he was so active in 
carrying on its operations. He was born in North Carolina. When he 
was seven years old he saw a slave-gang — a long line of men, women, and 
children, handcuffed and chained together to prevent their escape, driven 
by a man on horseback, who took pleasure in bringing his heavy cart-whip 
down with a crack upon the bare backs of any one who lagged in the 
weary march. There were tears upon their cheeks, for husbands and 
wives had been separated from their children to see them no more for- 
ever. 

"How terrible I should feel if my father were to be taken from me!" 
was the thought that came to the boy, and which made him from that 
time on to the end of life a friend to the slave. 

His father kept hogs, which ran in the woods; and it was Levi's 
business to feed them. lie frequently found negroes in the forest who 
had run away from their masters, who were half starved, and he supplied 
them with food. He saw that on the side of the slave-holders there was 
power; that the slaves had no comforter — their only solace being to sing 
and dance, or play the banjo or rude fiddle made by themselves; that those 
who had kind masters and mistresses were liable to be sold any moment; 
that slavery was a s} T stem of iniquity. 

While a boy he aided many negroes to escape. He hated slavery so 
intensely that he moved to Indiana to be in a free State. Fugitives soon 



1854-1851).] 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 



41U 



learned that there was a man in Newport, Indiana, who would help thetn. 
Slaves all over the South, somehow, had learned that there was a land 
called Canada — far away under the north-star— where all men were free; 
and they were ready to endure any hardship to reach that country. 

The laws of Indiana had severe penalties for any one aiding negroes 
escaping from slavery; but Levi Coffin planted himself on the Bible and 
on the natural rights of 
men ; law or no law, he 
would help the oppressed. 
He has written this in re- 
gard to his operations : 

" Three principal lines 
from the South converged 
at my house : one from 
Cincinnati, one from 
Madison, and one from 
Jeffersonville. Seldom 
a week passed without 
our receiving passengers 
by this mysterious Under- 
ground Railroad. We 
knew not what night, or 
what hour of the night, 
we would be aroused by 
a gentle rap at the door, 
which was the signal of 
the arrival of a train ; 
for the locomotive did 
not whistle or make any 
unnecessary noise. I 
have often been awak- 
ened by this signal, and 
sprung out of bed in the 
dark, to find outside in the cold or rain a two-horse wagon loaded with 
fugitives — perhaps the greater part of them women and children. When 
they were all safely inside, and the door fastened, I would cover the win- 
dows, strike a light, and build a good fire. By this time my wife would 
be up and preparing food for them, and in :i short time the cold and hun- 
gry fugitives would be comfortable. The number of fugitives each year 
was more than one hundred. Sometimes fugitives came in rags, footsore, 




THKII! <>M.\ SOI.ACK. 



4:20 



111 II.I'IM. I'lii: NATION. 



[Chap. XXX. 



toilworn, and almost wild, having been out for several months, travelling 
at night, hiding in cane-brakes or thickets during the day, after being lost 
and making little headway at night, particularly in cloudy weather, when 
the north-star could not he seen; sometimes almost perishing for food, and 
afraid of every white person they saw, even after they came into a free 




L_ 



PLANTATION SCENE — A NEGRO III 



State, knowing that slaves were often captured and taken hack after cross- 
ing the Ohio Rivci'. 

"If the hunters were on the track of the fugitives they were hurried 
on to another 'station,' for the 'stations' reached all the way to Canada. 
Slave-hunters often passed through our town, and sometimes had hired 
ruflians with them from Richmond and other places. They knew me well, 
and knew that I harbored slaves and aided them to escape, but never 
ventured to search my premises or molest me in any way. 



1854-1859.] THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 421 

" I told the sympathizers with the slave-traders that I intended to shel- 
ter as many runaway slaves as I could, and advised them to be careful 
how they interfered with my work; that they might get themselves into 
difficulty, if they undertook to capture slaves from my premises, and be- 
come involved in legal prosecutions, for most of the arrests were unlawful. 
I would have them arrested as kidnappers. The pursuit was often very 
close. .Sometimes a company of fugitives scattered, and were secreted 
until the hunters gave up the chase. At other times they were hurried 
forward with all speed. It was a continual excitement and anxiety to us, 
but the work was its own reward." 

One of the fugitives aided was Aunt Rachel, who had a kind master 
and mistress at Lexington. She was a house-servant. Her husband be- 
longed to another man. They had several children; but the husband 
was sold, taken South, nor did Aunt Rachel ever see or hear from him 
again. Her master and mistress died, and she and her children were sold. 
The children were bought by people in Lexington, but their mother was 
purchased by a slave-trader. x\h ! the agony of separation; of no avail 
her prayers or tears. Her pleadings fell on stony hearts. To white men 
she was a chattel — a piece of property — nothing more. She was taken 
far away to the cotton-fields of Mississippi. Not knowing how to pick 
cotton, she lagged in her work. Then the overseer's whip came down upon 
her quivering flesh, and the blood ran in streams. 

" If you can't keep up you shall have less to eat," said the overseer, 
cutting short her rations of corn-meal and bacon. 

Her heart was breaking; In her lonely cabin at night she thought 
only of her children. She must get back to them. 

The berries were ripening. The green corn would soon be in the milk. 
She must get back to her old home. The north-star would guide her. 

" To stay here is death. I can but die if I go," she said to herself. 

One morning the overseer missed her. She had travelled far during 
the night. When day dawned she secluded herself in "a swamp. When 
the sun went down and the north-star blazed out in the heavens she was 
on her way. Three months passed, and foot-sore, weary, haggard, she was 
back with her children. 

"Of course she will go there," said her master, notifying the police, 
who soon had her in jail. Her master came with his heavy whip, laid it 
about her till the floor was thick with blood. 

" That is only a taste of what you will receive when I get you baek to 
the plantation," he said. 

He took her to a blacksmith, who riveted an iron band upon her ankles 



422 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXX. 

with a chain and a six-pound cannon-ball; lie then put her in a wagon to 
take her to Louisville — right toward the north-star. 

Ali ! that love that springs eternal in the human heart — love of lib- 
erty! How it has nerved men in prison, upon the scaffold, at the martyrs' 
stake ! 

It was late in the evening when the planter rode up to a country 
tavern, lie got out of the carriage and went into the house, leaving 
Aunt Rachel in the wagon. She gathered the ball and chain in her 
hands, leaped from the wagon, and crouched by the roadside. Her master, 
when he came out, finding her gone, never thought of looking so near — - 
she could almost have touched him. When he was gone she made haste as 
best >he could through the woods. To get rid of the cannon-ball she laid 
the chain upon a rock and pounded it with a stone till one of the links 
gave way. Now she can run. She comes to a slave-cabin and finds shelter. 
The negroes themselves are slaves and ready to aid her. They get the 
manacles from her wrists, but cannot remove the riveted band upon her 
ankle. When night comes the negro catches two of his master's horsey 
puts Aunt Rachel on one, mounts the other, and they ride northward 
toward the Ohio. In the morning the horses are back again in the 
pasture, feeding quietly, as if nothing had happened. Secreted by A:\\\ 
going on again by night, Aunt Rachel makes her way, every step marked 
with blood from the chafing of the riveted band on her ankle. She finds 
another slave friend, who has a file, who cuts it off, bathes her wound, and 
goes with her. At midnight they behold the waters of the Ohio glowing 
in the starlight, ami another negro ferries her across the stream, directing 
her to negro friends upon the Indiana shore. At last she is on the Under- 
ground Railroad, which takes her to the home of Levi Coffin, and on to 
Canada and freedom. 

Many white men in the Southern States did not like slavery, and 
wished to see it abolished. John Fairfield, of Virginia, hated it, and ran 
off :i great many slaves by the Underground Railroad. His uncle had 
a bright slave called Bill, who was John's playmate in boyhood. When 
John was about twenty years old he determined to visit Ohio, and per- 
suaded Rill to take one of his master's horses and go with him. The plan 
was carried out, and the slave became a free man. 

When John returned home he learned that his uncle was intending to 
arrest him, whereupon he ran off several more of his uncle's slaves, taking 
them over the mountains through Northern Virginia to Ohio, and on to 
Canada. He was bold, daring, reckless, arming himself with revolvers. 
The slaves very quickly discovered that he was their friend. He went to 



1854-1859.] 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 



423 



Kentucky, pretended to be buying horses, made the acquaintance of the 
negroes, met them at night, and gained their confidence. 

" Take your master's best horse ; be at the cross-roads at ten o'clock," 
he said to them. 

Ten o'clock came, and nearly twenty negroes were at the rendezvous 
on their masters' horses. Instead of riding toward the Ohio River, Fair- 
field made a wide circuit, rightly judging that the men who would be 
hunting for him never would imagine that the fugitives had ridden south 
before striking north. "When daylight came they were all secreted in the 



f: 



■ I 



fyliS 

■Mk 

M» , ;¥* l ''!l , *f 




TALKING AHOITT FREEDOM. 



woods. They had ridden nearly forty miles. When night came again 
they left their horses in a pasture, took other horses, and reached the 
Ohio River at Maysville, found a boat, crossed the stream, and made their 
way to Canada. 

There were negroes in Canada who had fled from West Virginia, and 
who importuned Fairfield to bring their friends out from slavery. He 
went up the Kanawha River to the salt-works, and had two boats built, to 
be loaded with salt, which he intended to sell in Louisville. He had two 
free colored men with him, who made the acquaintance of the slaves. 



424 BUILDING Till-: NATION. [Chap.XXX, 

There had been heavy rains, and the river was rising. One of the 
boats was finished. In the darkness on Saturday night, with a crowd of 
negroes on board, it was sweeping down the river. 

Sunday morning dawned. John Fairfield's boat and the slaves of the 
neighborhood — ten thousand dollars' worth — were missing. 

The next night the other boat, loaded with fugitives, disappeared. 

" I have lost two boats, and am ruined," said Fairfield, organizing a 
party to recapture the fugitives. " We will overhaul the rascals yet. Let 
us divide and scour the country." The pursuers, with rifles and pistols, 
separated to meet at an appointed place. They hunted woods and fields, 
and rode to the rendezvous to meet Fairfield ; but instead of being there 
he was riding hard in the opposite direction, overtaking the fugitives, and 
conducting them to Canada. 

From Maryland to Missouri slaves were constantly escaping. More 
than twenty thousand reached Canada. 

The Underground Railroad aided so many to escape that the slave- 
holders complained that they were being systematically robbed ; that the 
Constitution did not protect them; that the Northern States were nulli- 
fying the Fugitive Slave Law. 

k " Unless we can be protected we will secede from the Union," said the 
slave-holders in Congress and in the Southern newspapers. 

It was said so often that the Northern people came to believe that they 
were not in earnest. 

The attempts to recapture the slaves irritated the Northern people. 
Several of the States passed "personal liberty" bills, which made it diffi- 
cult for the slave-holders to recapture the fugitives, and which, in turn, 
made those who wished to secede from the Union more determined than 
ever to brine about the secession of all the slave-holding States. From 
1856 — when the Republican party was formed to resist the aggression 
of slavery — to 1S60 the Secessionists, while doing what they could to 
make slavery national, looked forward to the time when, no longer able 
to rule, they would destroy the Republic. 



1790-1860.J PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 425 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 

SOON after the adoption of the Constitution, Congress passed the 
" Patent " law, which has had a great deal to do with developing 
the nation. 

When Elizabeth was Queen of England she granted patents to her 
favorites — not for any invention in machines, but the exclusive right to 
manufacture and sell certain articles. King James granted many such 
patents. As the years went on men began to see that the product of a 
man's brain ought to be recognized as property as well as the product of 
his hands. 

The law of the United States passed in 1790 enabled a man by the 
payment of thirty dollars to have the exclusive use of any invention he 
might make. It set men to constructing machines to do the work of 
human hands. 

In 1756 a boy was born in Delaware — Oliver Evans — who, as soon 
as he was old enough to hold a knife, began to make wind-mills and 
water-wheels. While he was very small he began to make experiments. 
He obtained an old gun-barrel, put a little water into it, rammed in a wad, 
plugged up the vent-hole, put it in a blacksmith's forge, and blew the bel- 
lows till it was nearly red-hot, when the gun went off with a bang. Was 
it powder? No; the water had only become steam. Oliver was delighted. 
He supposed that he had discovered a new force in nature. He began 
to study steam, and invented a steam-engine. In 1787 he applied to Con- 
gress for a patent for a steam- wagon and a steamboat ; but the request 
was not granted, for Congress had not then awakened to the idea of giving 
men protection for the product of their brains. 

" I have no doubt," he said, " that the time will come when people will 
travel in stages moved by steam-engines almost as fast as birds can fly — 
fifteen or twenty miles an hour. A carriage will start from Washington, 
the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup 
in New York the same day." -,** 



426 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap, xxxl 




THE Tni.1 BAT] 



% 






1 ! 



The human race was mov- 
ing on to a higher civilization. 
Moral, political, social, material forces unknown in past ages were (le- 
vel. .pin-' in all civilized countries, especially in the United States and 
Great Britain. The world was beginning to use machinery. Inventors 
were thinking and planning. James Watt, in England, had set the steam- 
engine to work; steamboats were ploughing the waters of the Hudson, 
the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the great lakes. England had few steam- 
boats, because she had no great rivers. The steamboat belonged to 
America, Would steamboats ever cross the Atlantic? 

The learned Dr. Lardner said, *' I will eat the first vessel that makes 
the trip." In 1S19 a vessel that measured three hundred and fifty tons 
was built in New York for Mr. Scarborough, of Savannah. It had a 



1790-1860.] PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 427 

steam-engine and paddle-wheels. Moses Rogers, who had been captain 
of Robert. Fulton's Clermont, was captain of the new vessel, which was 
named the Savannah. 

On May 26, 1819, the vessel started from Savannah for Liverpool. 

" It never will get there," said the doubters. With her deck piled with 
pitch-pine wood, and a cloud of smoke belching from the iron chimney, 
the vessel started out upon the ocean. For eighteen days and nights, till 
the wood gave out, the engineer kept the paddle-wheels whirling; then 
the sails were set, and on June 20 the people of Liverpool beheld the vessel 
sailing into the harbor r having made the voyage in twenty-four days — the 
first steamship that ever crossed the Atlantic. From Liverpool the Savan- 
nah went on to Copenhagen, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg. The people 
were greatly astonished to see such a craft, sailing against wind and tide. 
The Savannah left St. Petersburg, on her return home, in November, and 
reached the United States in safety. 

When the country was first settled very little attention was given to 
the laying-out of roads. They were carried over high hills and through 
deep valleys; but at the beginning of the century the Legislatures of the 
different States granted charters to companies for the construction of turn- 
pikes, allowing those who built them the privilege of charging toll. The 
turnpikes were more direct, and were kept in better order, than the " town " 
highways. As the population increased the turnpikes became crowded 
thoroughfares. Great wagons, drawn by six, eight, and sometimes ten 
horses, rolled along the way. The farmers from the interior made jour- 
neys to the large towns along the seaboard, carrying their butter, cheese, 
chickens, pigs, and apple -sauce to market, returning with salt, sugar, 
and coffee. Drovers collected cattle and sheep from the pastures on 
the hills, and drove them along the dusty roads to the distant towns and 
cities. 

There were frequent taverns, where the travellers rested their horses 
or put up for the night, making the acquaintance of other travellers 
around the fires blazing in the bar-rooms. 

The stage-coach was still the swiftest means of conveyance. Over the 
hills, through the valleys, up and down the mountains— through snow-drifts 
in winter and mud in spring-time— the stage-man drove his prancing team, 
carrying the mail, stopping at every post-office, while the post-master emp- 
tied the bag, looked over the letters and newspapers to see if there was 
anything for anybody in the town— the passengers in the stage impatiently 
waiting. The stage could only make seventy miles a day. The world 
wanted to get on faster. 



428 



BUILDING THE .NATION. 



[Chap. XXXL 










'- ""* 




OI.I) WAV-SUM I A \ 1 l;\. 



Oliver Evans had made the first steam-wagon, but the roads were so 
rough that it could not be used. 

Mechanics and inventors in England were planning how to use steam 
on roads. Richard Trevethiek laid iron rails on the ground in Torrington 
Square, London, and constructed an engine which he named " Catch-me- 
who-can." The people were surprised to see it fly round a circle; but one 



1790-1860.] PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 42tf 

day it leaped from the track and smashed itself to pieces, and that was 
the last of it. 

It was discovered that a block of granite weighing ten hundred and 
eighty pounds required a force of seven hundred and fifty-eight pounds 
to move it on the ground ; on a plank floor it required a force of four hun- 
dred and fifty-two pounds; on wooden rollers, three inches in diameter, 
thirty-four pounds; and on wheels on iron rails, only four pounds. John 
Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1812 appeared before Congress with 
a plan for a railroad. 

" I can see nothing," he said, " to hinder a steam-carriage from moving 
on its ways with a velocity of one hundred miles an hour." 

But war began, and nothing was done toward carrying out his plans. 

The first railroad in England was constructed between Liverpool and 
Manchester. It cost a great deal of money, for the men who built it were 
obliged to make a deep cut through a hill, build a high bridge over a wide 
valley, and make a circuitous line, because the Duke of Devonshire did not 
want the deer, pheasants, and partridges in his game-park frightened by 
the rumbling of the car-wheels; and he was so powerful that he compelled 
the company to build the line away from his grounds. 

This was before the people had a voice in Parliament, and the great 
men could do pretty much as they pleased. 

The company building the road at the outset expected to use horses, 
but decided to try the use of locomotives. 

People shook their heads, doubting if they would work. 

"What can be more absurd and ridiculous," asked a writer in the 
Quarterly Jiecfew, " than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling 
twice as fast as stage-coaches? We would as soon expect people to trust 
themselves to be fire;! off upon one of Congreve's rockets as to trust them- 
selves to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate." 

" If a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the way of the engine, 
would not that be a very awkward circumstance?" asked a member of 
Parliament of George Stephenson. 

" Yes, very awkward for the coo" said Stephenson, who was a Scotch- 
man and had the Scotch dialect. 

One of the locomotives was planned by John Ericsson, a young man 
from Sweden, whom the world has heard from since then, and who has 
made the United States his home. It was called the "Novelty," and ran 
twenty-eight miles an hour, although it weighed only three tons. 

George Stephenson built the "Pocket," which weighed nearly five tons. 
It was more powerful than the " Novelty," and ran twenty-nine miles an h< >ur. 



430 



builium; the nation. 



[Chap. XXXI 




GKORGE STKPHENSON. 



While the English engineers were bringing out their locomotives 
Peter Cooper, of New York, was building one, which was used on the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, making eighteen miles in less than an hour. 
It was the first locomotive constructed in the United States. 

A railroad was opened from Boston to Lowell, another from Albany 
to Schenectady, in 1831. 

With the construction of railroads the stage-coaches, the heavy teams, 
and the way-side inns began to disappear. Towns once stirring and popu- 
lous came to a stand-still, and new villages, towns, and cities sprung up 
along the new highways of travel : 

"To tin' mossy way-side tavern 

Comes the noisy throng no more; 
And the faded sign, complaining, 
Swings unnoticed :it the door." 



All the world was in motion. People far away became near neigh- 



,.790-1860.] 



PKCXJRESS OF INVENTION 



431 



bors. Men who had been wise in their own conceit and ignorance, who 
thought their own roof-tree, their own village and town, the centre of the 
world, began to discover that the world was larger than they had dreamed. 

" Do you know what is drawing that train V George Stephenson put 
the question to a friend. 

" Why, coal, of course." 

" We call it coal, but it is the stored up sunlight of the primeval ages," 
said Stephenson. 

In 1810 Francis C. Lowell, of Boston, far-seeing and patriotic, was m 
England. He saw how that country was beginning to manufacture for 




THE "ROCKET. 



all the world ; how manufacturers and merchants were becoming rich by 
selling goods to the people of the United States. 

"The time has come for America to do her own manufacturing," 
he said. 

In 1S1G he and his friends started a cotton manufactory at Waltham, 
in Massachusetts. The Merrimac River was running to waste. From the 
primeval ages the sun had been evaporating the water of the Atlantic; 
the winds had wafted the moisture to the White Mountains, the clouds 
precipitating it earthward, and gravitation bringing it down again to the 
sea. Through all the years this energy of nature had been of no account; 



432 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. KXXI 



but in 1823 Mr. Lowell and his friends set it to work — turning water- 
wheels, whirling spindles, and throwing shuttles. The girls who had been 
spinning and carding in their country homes laid aside the hand-card* and 
the spinning-wheel, with which they could earn but fifty cents a week, and 
found employment in the manufactory, where they could earn, not only 
their board, but three dollars a week in addition. 

At Lowell and other places there was a using of water-wheels to spin and 
weave — the employment of the energy of nature, the use of iron and steel, 

of wheel, pinion, spindle, and shuttle, 
to do the work of human hands. To 
build the mills, to work the looms, 
all trades were employed. New in- 
dustries sprung up. Old things — 
the hand-cards and spinning-wheel, 
flax-breaker, swingling -knife, and 
hatchel — disappeared. New social 
conditions came. Inventors found 
employment. Invention begins in 
thought. The inventor is an educa- 
tor. The more thought he puts into 
a machine, the higher the intelli- 
gence required to operate it; so 
there was an increase of intelli- 
gence. Cities, towns, villages sprung 
up where, but a short time before, 
no sound but the water rushing over 
its rocky bed disturbed the stillness. 
Schools were opened ; churches lift- 
ed their spires heavenward ; and 
from morn till night rose the hum 
of industry where, through uncounted ages, the birds had built their nests 
and foxes reared their young. 

There is an old story that a shepherd who was tending his sheep on a 
mountain near the little village of Magnesia, in Asia Minor, and who had 
nails in the heels of his shoes, happened to step upon a black rock and, 
when he attempted to lift his foot, found that the rock had such power to 
attract iron that he could not stir. We need not believe this story about 
the discovery of magnetic iron ore unless we choose, for, if true, the shep- 
herd must have been very weak in the legs; but since its discovery, away 
back in Homer's time, magnetic iron has been found in every land. The 




8. K. B. MORSE. 



1790-1860.] 



PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 



433 



Chinese knew its properties — that when suspended by a string, or balanced 
on a pivot, a piece of magnetic iron would point north and south. Discov- 
ering this, they invented the compass. 

In 1762 a gentleman in Germany, happening to put a piece of zinc 
and a piece of silver into his mouth, felt a pricking in his tongue. He 
knew not what to make of it, but came to the conclusion that there was 
some property about the metals of which the world was ignorant. 

Two years after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States 
a lady in Italy, Madame Galvani, who was helping her husband dissect a 
frog, was surprised at seeing the frog's legs move when brought in contact 
with a piece of copper and a piece of zinc. Out of that discovery came 
the galvanic battery. 

Two learned men — Sir Humphry Davy, in England, and Arago, in 
France — in 1819 discovered that a piece of iron surrounded by a wire, 
with a current of galvanic electricity passing through it, would become 
magnetic. Five years later William Sturgeon, of London, bent a piece of 




PROFESSOR MORSE EXHIBITING HIS ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 

wire in the shape of the letter U, wound another wire around it, connected 
the last with a galvanic battery, and discovered that the first wire lost its 
magnetic property the moment the last was disconnected with the battery, 
and regained it the moment it was reconnected. A watch-maker oi Al- 
bany, New York, Joseph Henry, who had been appointed professor of 



434 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXI. 



mathematics in Albany Academy, began a series of experiments in mag- 
netic electricity, sending a current through a wire a mile in length and 
ringing a bell. Another American — Samuel F. B. Morse, born in Charles- 




ENGINE (IK 1790 — GENERAL WASHINGTON as a FIREMAN. 



town, Massachusetts, a portrait - painter — in 1S32 conceived the idea of 
the electric-telegraph. In L837 be exhibited his invention to a party of 
friends. Congress granted thirtv thousand dollars to aid him in erecting 
aline between Washington and Baltimore. In ls44 Professor Morse sent 
the firsl message to his assistant at Baltimore: "What hath God wrought?" 
The Democratic Convention was in session in Baltimore, and the first pub- 
lic message senl over the world's firs! electric-telegraph was the news of 
the nomination of James K. Polk for President. 

All the large towns and cities of the country bad fire-engines. Gen- 
eral Washington, before the Revolution, was member of a fire company, 
and aided in dragging the engine to fires. When a tire broke out in any 
of the huge cities the church bells began to ring, and the firemen ran to 
the engine-house. 



1790-1860.] 



PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 



435 



As all the bells were clanging it was difficult for them to find the fire, 
and they often went tearing through the streets not knowing where it 
was. Why not give an alarm of fire by the electric-telegraph? Moses 
G. Farmer, who was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, built two ma- 
chines in 1848, placed one on the top of the Court-house in Boston, and 
the other in the New York and Boston telegraph-office, connecting them 
with a telegraph wire running to New York, and the operator in that city, 
two hundred and thirty miles away, set the bells ringing. In May, 1852, 
the electric fire alarm invented and constructed by Mr. Farmer went into 
operation in the city of Boston, giving instant notice of a fire. The fire- 
men, instead of rushing blindly through the streets, knew the exact locality. 

The engines were worked by hand, requiring twenty or more men — 
as many as could get a hand upon the brakes — to throw a stream to the top 
of the highest buildings. The life of a fireman was one of great excite- 
ment. At mid-day or midnight every member of the company, upon an 
alarm, must hasten to the/ engine-house, drag the engine upon the run 
through the streets — through mud in summer and snow in winter — the 
bells clanging, and the 
captain shouting, "Bounce 



her, boys !" 

The firemen of the dif- 
ferent engines took great 
pride in being first to start. 
There were lively races to 
see which should be first 
at the fire, and exciting 
contests as to which could 
throw the highest stream. 
Men whose buildings they 
were trying to save were 
ever ready to supply them 
with crackers-and -cheese 
and whiskey. The rivalry 
was so keen between the 
companies in the large cit- 
ies and towns that a fire 
was frequently followed 
by a fight between the members of the different fire-engine companies. 

Mi'. Latta, of Cincinnati, saw that steam would work engines far better 
than they could be worked by men. and invented a steam fire engine in 




MOSKS <i. FARMER. 



43G 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXI. 



1852 which would work on hour after hour and never grow weary. The 
firemen in all the large cities opposed its introduction, for with steam- 
engines in use there would be no more exciting races or contests.no more 
free lunches and free fights. Business men saw how valuable an inven- 




FIKK ENGINE, J 85 I. 

tion it was, and so the United States gave the steam fire-engine to the 
world. 

In the "Story of Liberty" will be found an account of Lawrence Ros- 
ter, of Haerlem, who, in L423, went with his children into the woods for 
a holiday, and who, while carving their names, saw that by making the 
letters of the alphabet separate he could print any word; that his ap- 
prentice, John Gutenberg, with John Faust, improved his invention and 
started a printing-press at Mentz. Gutenberg began to print. Bibles, and 
so reduced the price that a Bible which used to cost seven hundred crowns 
could he purchased for thirty. In L620, af the time the Pilgrims were 
crossing the Atlantic. William Blaew, of Amsterdam, improved the print- 
ing-press \\>c(\ 1>\ Gutenberg— attaching a spring to the lever, thus cans- 



1790-1860.] 



PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 



4D7 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN S PRESS. 



ing it to fly back as soon as the impression was taken. Benjamin Frank- 
lin's printing-press was Blaew's, with a few improvements. At the begin- 
ning of the centurv not more than five hundred impressions an hour could 
be made by the best press in the 
world — one invented by Lord Stan- 
hope, of England. While the war 
was going on between England and 
the United States (1812) a German 
mechanic (Konig) was at work con- 
structing a press for the London 
Time* driven by steam, which 
printed eleven hundred impressions 
an hour. George Clymer, of Phila- 
delphia, invented a press which 
he named the "Columbian," a much 
better hand -press than Lord Stan- 
hope's. 

A very ingenious mechanic, Rich- 
ard M. Hoe, of New York, who was 
making saws, went to England in 1837 to obtain a patent for an improved 
mode of grinding saws. He had his eyes open, and saw that a much better 
printing-press than that used by the London Times could be constructed. 
He returned to the United States and constructed the " Lightning Press," 

and then the " Perfecting Press," capable 
of printing fifteen thousand newspapers, 
on both sides, in an hour. 

It is live hundred years since the copy- 
ists under John Wickliff (see "Story of 
Liberty") wrote out his translation of the 
Bible into the English language. Of the 
five million inhabitants in Great Britain 
at that time very few could read. The 
18%! translations, written out with much care, 
were chained to reading-desks in the 
churches. In all the cathedral towns 
there were daily readings of the Bible to 
„ "" the people. In contrast the printing-press- 

" COLUMBIAN" PRESS. " " l « r 

es invented by Mr. Hoe will print twenty- 
five hundred copies of the Bible in an hour; and at so cheap a rate is 
printing done, that the New Testament entire can be printed for two cents. 




438 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXI. 







' "illtil V 






RICHARD M. HOE. 



The inventions of Mi-. Hoe, the introduction of the telegraph, with the 
construction of railroads, made it possible to produce the great metropoli- 
tan newspapers published in New York, Chicago, and other cities of the 
country, far excelling in variety and completeness of information the 
newspapers of London or Paris — employing hundreds of men to gather 
news, write editorials, report meetings and speeches, give accounts of acci- 
dents by flood or fire, narratives of battles — of everything transpiring, 



1790-1860.] 



PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 



439 



whether on the Atlantic or Pacific coast, on the prairies, or amid the 
mountains; sending men to Europe, Asia, Africa; discussing all political, 
moral, religions, economical questions ; recording the progress of the world 
— making the newspaper one of the mightiest forces of civilization. 




THE PERFECTING Piil>S. 



440 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XXXU. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE MORMONS. 

IN all countries, and in all ages, there have been men and women ready 
to accept any religions belief, no matter what its character, origin, or 
foundation. In India lived the Thugs, who murdered men and women 
as a religious act. It is very easy for designing men to awaken religious 
enthusiasm and delude- ignorant but well-meaning people, and use them 
to advance their own interests. . 

A great delusion, wide-spread and powerful — Mormonism — has had 
a strange development. In 1785 Solomon Spaulding graduated from 
Dartmouth College. He became a minister, but left preaching and kept 
a store. He wrote a story, a poor romance, about the origin of the In- 
dians — that they were descendants of the ten tribes of Israel that revolted 
when Jeroboam was king. 

Mr. Spaulding styled his book "Manuscript Found; or, the Book of 
Mormon." He sent it to Pittsburg to be printed. One of the men in the 
printing-office was Sidney Rigdon, who left off setting types and took up 
preaching for a living — preaching in school-houses and barns, lie had 
the manuscript in his possession, and had a great deal to sa} r about the 
lost tribes of Israel. 

To understand how the story became the Mormon Bible, and how there 
came to be Mormons, we must go to the green hills of Vermont and make 
the acquaintance of a family by the name of Smith, in the town of Sharon 
— husband, wife, and nine children. Mr. Smith claimed to be a wizard. 
People who wanted wells dug employed him to find hidden springs. lie 
held a witch-hazel rod in his hand, walked the fields and pastures, and 
when he came to the right spot the rod tipped in his hand. Mrs. Smith 
pretended to tell fortunes by looking at a person's hand. Those who knew 
her best said that it was easier for her to tell a lie than speak the truth. 
The boys were vagabonds. If the farmers missed a chicken from the 
roost, or if corn disappeared from the bin, they were quite sure the Smith 
boys knew about it. 



1630-181)0.] 



THE MOKMONS. 



441 



One of the boys, Joseph, was as cunning as his mother. He was her 
favorite. He could read, but never learned to write. He had two books 
— the "Life of Stephen Burroughs," who had been licensed to preach, but 
who was a scoundrel and thief, and who was several times put in jail ; the 
other book was about Captain Kidd, the pirate, who captured a great many 
vessels on the ocean. Joseph took great pleasure in reading about the 
exploits of the sea-rover and freebooter, and in singing the ballad: 

" My name was Robert Kidd, 

As I sailed, as I sailed ; 
And most wickedly I did, 
And God's laws I did forbid, 

As I sailed, as I sailed." 



The family moved to New York State, and settled near Palmyra. 
Mr. Smith built a house and dug a well. He threw out with his shovel a 
curiously-shaped white stone, which Joseph picked up. An idea came to 
him: the Bible had a great deal to say about precious stones; why not 
make this a prophetic stone to 
tell fortunes by, and so make 
money ? His mother urged him 
on, telling him what to say. Peo- 
ple wanted to know about the 
future — about getting rich. He 
put the stone into a hat, put the 
hat to his face, and pretended 
that the stone was transparent 
and shining, and that by looking 
at it he could tell what was to 
happen ; that if a man would dig 
in the ground in a specified place 
he would find a pot filled with 
gold ; but the digging must be in 
silence, for, if a word were spo- 
ken, the pot never would be 

found. It never was found. Nevertheless, people came to consult Joseph 
Smith about cattle that had strayed, and horses that had been stolen, or 
whether their undertakings would prosper. 

The man who had quit printing and taken up preaching made the 
acquaintance of the man who could tell so much by putting his white 
stone into a hat and looking at it. Sidney Rigdon read to Smith the story 




442 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XXXU 

written by Spaulding. Joseph Smith was shrewd enough to see that he 
could use the Book of Mormon to advantage. He said that an angel stood 
by his bed one night and informed him that if he would go to the hill 
Cnraorah, four miles south of Palmyra, and dig in the ground, he would 
find a set of golden plates, on which were hieroglyphics which he would 
be able to read by using two transparent stones, which he would also find 
—the Trim and Thnmmim of the Old Testament. The plates, the angel 
said, contained a revelation from Almighty God. 

( >n the night of September 22, in the year 1827, according to Smith's 
story, an angel placed the plates in his hands. They were eight inches 
long and seven wide, and made a pile six inches high. No one but him- 
self ever was to see them, because they were sacred, and God had chosen 
him as his special agent to reveal them to the human race. 

Sitting behind a blanket hung so that no one could see him, with 
Oliver Cowdery at a table near enough to hear and write what he had to 
say, Joseph Smith made his pretended translation of the supposed hiero- 
glyphics on the spurious plates. The whole made sixteen books. The 
firsl book tells about Nephi, who, Smith said, lived in Jerusalem b.c. 600, 
who built, a ship, and with eight men made their way to America. After 
many years there was a rebellion, and those who rebelled — the Lamanites 
— were condemned by God to have dark skins. Great battles were fought. 
The last one was on the hill Cnmorah, near Palmyra, where the Nephites 
were defeated. Hundreds of thousands were killed on both sides. Among 
the survivors of the Nephites were Mormon and his son Moroni, whom 
God directed to engrave the record on the plates, and bury them where 
the angel revealed them to Joseph Smith. 

Joseph was poor, 'nut he persuaded Martin Harris, who had money, 
that it would be a good speculation for him to print it. Mr. Harris let 
him have the money, and the book was printed; but the trusting farmer 
never saw his dollars again. 

While the printers were setting the types Joseph called upon a learned 
man in New York City — Professor Charles Anthon. 

"1 want to show you some of the characters on the golden plates re- 
vealed to me by the angel Moroni ; they are ancient Egyptian characters," 
said Smith. 

Professor Anthon looked at the paper, and saw a great variety of 
crooked characters — letters of the Greek and Hebrew and Roman alpha- 
bets, turned upside down and crossways, arranged in columns, with a 
circle very much like the one found in Mexico by Alexander Humboldt, 
and supposed to have been made bv the ancient Aztecs. 



1830-1860.] THE MORMONS. 443 

When the Mormon Bible made its appearance people said that it was 
Spaulding's novel mixed with quotations from the Bible, and much more 
from Joseph Smith. It spoke of a period when the Saints were to rule 
the earth — a millennium. The Indians were to be converted. All peo- 
ple who accepted the Book of Mormon were to be Saints. They were to 
have a great central city in America. 

Joseph Smith began to preach, and found men and women ready to 
listen to him and accept his doctrine. A church was organized at Man- 
chester, New York, in 1830. He set the converts to preaching. The 
excitement spread. Newspapers had a great deal to say about the sect 
that had taken the name of the "Latter-day Saints." Some of the con- 
verts went to Missouri and laid out the town of Independence. Were 
not the Saints to inherit the earth? Were not they, the Saints, the 
chosen of the Lord? They became arrogant, and claimed all the land, 
which so incensed the people of Missouri that they ducked some of the 
Saints in the river. 

Joseph Smith organized another church at Ivirtland, Ohio, built a mill, 
set up a bank, appointing himself president, and Sidney Rigdon cashier. 
They had no charter, but, nevertheless, issued bills, and bought houses, cat- 
tle, and horses with the worthless bills. They swindled the people, who, 
in their anger, seized the "two prophets," as they called themselves, and 
treated them to coats of tar and feathers. 

That did not deter Smith from going on with his plans. Before he 
brought out the Book of Mormon he was in poverty; now he had plenty 
of money. The Saints trusted him. Men and women were ready to join 
the Church, and were quick to believe any story he might tell them of 
revelation from (rod. He sent out preacher^ all over the country — to 
England and Scotland — who promised great worldly prosperity to all who 
accepted the Book of Mormon and joined the Church. One of the converts 
was Brigham Young, from Vermont, who was ordained an elder, and be- 
came a preacher. Smith took his revenge upon the "Gentiles" of Kirt- 
land by swindling them still more; but, fearing the sheriff might put him 
in jail, lie went to Missouri, where there were many who had become Mor- 
mons. They built the town of Far West. 

The Mormons became more arrogant than ever. 

"We are not amenable to the laws of the State," said Smith. They 
began to plunder the people, who organized themselves into a battalion, 
fell upon the Saints, and set their houses on fire. The governor of the 
State called out the militia. Smith and several others were tried by 
court-martial, and were sentenced to be shot, but were put in jail in- 



444 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XXXIL 

stead. They escaped and lied to Illinois, shaking the dust from their feet 
against Missouri, threatening vengeance. They begau a new town on the 
bank of the Mississippi, and named it Nanvoo. It was to be the great 
central and holy city of the Saints. The people who had followed Smith 
to Missouri now followed him to Xauvoo. 

A new element came into play to help on the Mormon Church. There 
were two great political parties in the country — Whigs and Democrats. 
General Harrison, who had won the battle of Tippecanoe, was the candidate 
of the Whigs for President, and Martin Van Bnren the candidate of the 
Democrats. There were men in the country who wanted to be senators 
and representatives, and the politicians of both parties were ready to bid 
for the votes of the Mormons. When in Missouri the Mormons had voted 
with the Democrats, but the Governor of Missouri, a Democrat, had or- 
dered out the militia against them. They had sent a petition to Martin 
Van Buren, the Democratic President, for protection, but the President 
had taken no notice of it. Joseph Smith saw his opportunity: he would 
help the Whigs if the Whigs would help him. He wanted a charter for 
the city of Nauvoo, and sent Dr. Bennett to Springfield to get it, who 
called upon Mr. Little, Whig senator from the county in which Nauvoo 
was located. 

"You shall have my influence," said Mr. Little. 

Dr. Bennett called upon Stephen A. Douglas, Secretary of State — a 
Democrat. 

" I will help you, 1 ' said the secretary. 

So it came about that the Mormons obtained a remarkable charter in 
an unusual way — so unusual that it was never read in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, not a member of that body knowing whai it contained — that the 
city of Xauvoo might extend over all Illinois under this clause: "When- 
ever any tract of land shall have been laid out into town lots and duly re- 
corded according to law, the same shall form a part of the city.'' Another 
section enabled the city council to nullify the law of the State within the 
city and over as much adjoining territory as they pleased. It established 
a military organization — the Xauvoo Legion -which was to he under 
Joseph Smith, and independent of all other military authority. The State 
was to supply the Legion with muskets and cannon. It established a court. 
Joseph Smith was to have his say about the appointment of judges. This 
Mormon hierarchy, of which he Avas the head, was to be absolute in every- 
thing. 

Whigs and Democrats alike were so eager to get the votes of the Mor- 
mons that there was no discussion of the provisions of the charter, no op- 



1830-1860.] THE MORMONS. 445 

position to its passage. More powerful than ever, the shrewd and cunning 
men who were deluding the ignorant people now went on to perfect their 
plans. More preachers were sent out to tell of the wonderful prosperity 
of the Church, and the earthly glory that was in store for all who joined 
it. A great temple was begun, built of stone quarried from the banks of 
the Mississippi, with a baptismal font twenty feet square, resting on twelve 
stone oxen. In 1839 the first house was built at Nauvoo; in 1S42 there 
were sixteen thousand Mormons in and around the town. 

The politicians of Illinois had sown the wind: they reaped the whirl- 
wind. Thieves stole horses and fled with them to Nauvoo; robbers plun- 
dered houses and made haste to the city of the Saints, and were protected 
by Joseph Smith, mayor, lieutenant-general, head of the Church. The 
sheriff was powerless to arrest them. Proud, boastful, arrogant, Smith 
asserted his authority. He established a new order of dignitaries — its 
members were to be kings and priests. He organized a body-guard, and 
called them Danites, or the Avengers. He claimed to have a revelation 
from heaven that an elder might marry as many wives as he pleased, 
after the manner of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon. He grasped 
so much power that some of the Mormons resisted, but were driven from 
Nauvoo. Grave crimes were charged against Smith — for causing an 
officer to be beaten, for shielding thieves, keeping property that he knew 
had been stolen, issuing counterfeit money. He was accused of seizing 
laud and other property of the people, who became so 'enraged that they 
began to organize to make war upon the Mormons. The governor called 
out the troops, but, in obedience to a last summons, Smith, his brother 
Hiram, and several leading Mormons gave themselves up. They were put 
in Cartilage jail, but the jail was broken open by an infuriated mob, and 
Joseph and Hiram were killed. 

Sidney Rigdon wanted to be elected head of the Church, but was ont- 
generalled by Brighara Young, who made short work with Eigdon. 

" He is to be cut off from the communion of the faithful, cursed, and 
delivered to the devil, to be buffeted for a thousand years," was the edict 
of excommunication. 

The Legislature of Illinois, seeing what a mistake had been made, 
repealed the charter. The Mormons attempted to resist, and war broke 
out. Several men were killed. The leaders saw that they could not stay 
in Illinois, but must go far away into the wilderness. 

Brigham Young understood human nature — that men and women the 
world over might be affected by the story of Joseph Smith's tragic death 
— the setting forth that the chosen of the Lord had died for righteousness' 



446 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XXXH 

Bake. Three thousand missionaries were sent to England, Germany, Nor- 
way, and Sweden. The converts were to be urged to come to America — 
to the great city which the Saints would build in the far West. 

In April, L847, Brigham Young and a company of Mormons started 
from Council Bluffs, made their way over the prairies, and, after many 
hardships, on July 24 reached Salt Lake, and chose a site for the new 
city —beginning the settlement of Utah. 

It was a forbidding prospect. They were in a valley where the wild 
artemesia was the only verdure. When the spring rains came there was 
grass upon the hills, which withered beneath the summer sun ; but streams 
trickled from the mountains. Ditches were dug, and the water turned 
upon the parched ground, which industry soon made a garden. 

A beehive was adopted as the symbol of the Church. Work was 
enjoined as a duty. Each Mormon was to pay one-tenth of all he raised 
into the treasury of the Church. 

The discovery of gold in California brought a great crowd of emi- 
grants, who were glad to purchase provisions of the Mormons. Prosperity 
attended them. The desert began to blossom. Brigham Young was ap- 
pointed Governor of Utah by the President. 

He ruled as a despot, bending all his energies and employing his of- 
ficial power to build up Monnonism. He became so arrogant that in 1857 
President Buchanan appointed Alfred Gumming governor in his stead. 
Brigham Young organized the Mormons as an army, and forbade the new 
governor to enter the Territory. 

An army was sent to compel submission, and the Mormons yielded. 

One of the Mormon missionaries, Parley P. Pratt, went to California 
to preach. One of his converts was a married woman, who left her hus- 
band to become the wife of the preacher. Her husband, burning to be 
revenged, followed Pratt to Arkansas and killed him. 

A party of one hundred and fifty emigrants, with forty wagons, on the 
way from Arkansas to California, reached Salt Lake City in 1N57. rested, 
purchased supplies, and passed on. They reached Mountain Meadow, in 
Southern I 'tali. They were near a Mormon settlement. Suddenly they 
were a! tacked by men dressed as Indians. The emigrants sheltered them- 
selves behind their wagons. 

k> If you will give up your arms you shall not be harmed,'' said one of 
the pretended Indians. The emigrants gave them up, but the next mo- 
ment a terrible massacre began — every man and woman— all but seven- 
teen children were inhumanly murdered. 

A few days after the massacre the wagons, horses, and clothing, a car- 



1830-1860.] THE MORMONS. 449 

riage and piano, were brought to Salt Lake and sold — the proceeds going 
into the treasury of the Mormon Church. The massacre was by the 
Danites, or " Avengers." The emigrants had come from the county 
of Arkansas in which Pratt had been killed, and this was the revenge 
meted out by the Mormons. 

The Mormon hierarchy consists of the first presidency, the twelve apos- 
tles, the high council, the seventies, the high-priests, elders, priests, teachers, 
and deacons. The first presidency consists of three men, who have great 
power in the Church ; who send out a ukase, or order, whenever they 
please, and the Mormons must obey or be cut off from the Church, to 
suffer persecution in this world and eternal punishment in the world to 
come. 

They perpetuate their power through the ignorance of the people, who 
accept the teachings of the missionaries as gospel truth. Not many Amer- 
icans have become Mormons, but most of the settlers of Utah are from 
other countries, who do not know that Mormonism is not merely a form 
of religion, but a political system as well — antagonistic to the government 
established by the people, the Constitution, and the Union. 



450 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXX II I. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 

r P^IIE nation — with its vast domain, reaching from the Atlantic to the 
■**- Pacific ; with its great rivers and lakes ; its mountains tilled with 
coal, iron, gold, and silver; its fertile fields and verdant pastures, its great 
towns and cities — would be very poor if these were all its possessions. The 
men who felled the forests, tilled the ground, constructed roads, built cities, 
laid foundations of States, fought battles, not alone have been builders of 
the nation ; they who never have marched to the battle-field, swung an axe, 
or stood in legislative halls — quiet men, in the seclusion of their homes, 
writing down their thoughts — have had a great deal to do with making 
the nation what it is. 

Material wealth perishes with the using: the fire burns it, time de- 
stroys it. Literature, science, and art alone endure. Thebes was a great 
and powerful city when the " Iliad " was written ; to-day it is a dust-heap, 
but the "Iliad" remains. Though Shakspeare had little money, very 
great the inheritance which the world has received from him. 

A nation that has no intellectual development will play an unimportant 
part in the great drama of Time ; on the other hand, a nation that esteems 
literature, science, and art as of greater value than houses, lands, or money 
may confidently look forward to a long lease of life. 

The American Republic had its origin in the longings and determina- 
tion of men to exercise freedom of thought. The men of the Mayfioiver 
thought and acted for themselves. They established free schools that their 
children might not grow up in ignorance. Out of the common-school has 
come the intellectual development of the nation. 

During the Colonial and through the early years of the century there 
was so much hard work to be done that not many books could be written. 
Only the ministers had any leisure for thought, and their thinking was not 
of literature, but how to put together words enough for two sermons on 
Sunday — doing what they could, with their limited education and narrow 
range of thought, to instruct the people. 



1800-1860.] LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 451 

From the common schools of New England, before the .Revolution, 
came two strong men of thought — Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin 
Franklin — whose writings had a powerful influence. Edwards wrote on 
the freedom of the human will so profoundly that the Old World, won- 
dered how it was possible that the New World should produce such an 
intellect. His thinking, however, was of the world to come. 

Benjamin Franklin — a man of the people — was ever thinking how the 
human race could get the most comfort and enjoyment in the present life. 
His "Poor Richard's Almanac" hung in the chimney-corners of the farm- 
houses, and was a storehouse of worldly wisdom, thrift, and economy ; the 
way to be prosperous, contented, and happy. 

Ministers read Jonathan Edwards's writings, and wrote their sermons 
under the inspiration of his commanding intellect. Benjamin Franklin 
talked to the people — the farmers, the boys and girls — by their firesides, 
through the proverbs and wise sayings of his almanacs. Jefferson, Adams, 
Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay wrote and talked only of politics. 

Philip Frenau was the poet of the Revolution. He was a student at 
Princeton in 1767, with James Madison for a room-mate. He wrote sat- 
ires on the Tories and patriotic songs, which were sung by the people. 
One was to the memory of those who fell at Eutaw : 

"At Eutaw's Springs the valiant died, 

Their limbs with dust are covered o'er; 
Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide — 
How many heroes are no more!" 

John Trumbull, of Connecticut, was so bright that when he was 
only five years old he could read Latin and Greek. He entered Yale 
College when he was thirteen. He was witty, and satirized the follies 
of his time. 

Timothy D wight, President of Yale College, and Joel Barlow wrote 
poetry ; but their writings had little influence in developing literature. 

" The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic," 
wrote Horace Walpole, of England, the year of his death, 1797. At the 
time he penned the words a little boy, three years of age, was playing 
around the door of a log-cabin amid the hills of AVestern Massachusetts, 
listening to the murmuring of a brook, the songs of birds, looking out 
upon the stately trees of the forest. It was William Cullen Bryant, who 
had such a love for poetry that before he was three years old he could 
repeat many of the hymns which his mother read to him written by Dr. 
Isaac Watts. 



452 BUILDING THE NATION. [CHAP. XXXIII. 

"The boy will never live to grow up," said the neighbors, who noticed 
that his body was small and his head very large — so large that his father, 
who was a physician, thought something must be done to reduce its size, 
and every morning he was plunged head foremost into the cold brook. 
Ee went to the district school, and read everything that he could lay his 
hands upon. On the last day of the term the minister and the fathers and 
mothers attended the "examination and exhibition," to see how well the 
scholars had improved the time. They listened in astonishment to Wil- 
liam Cullen Bryant's composition. These are some of his lines: 

"Thanks to the preacher whose discernment true 
Upholds religion to the mental view; 
Unfolds to us instruction's ample page, 
Rich with the fruits of every distant age ; 
Pours simple truths, by love divine refined, 
With force resistless on the youthful mind. 
Thanks to the gentlemen assembled here 
To sec what progress we have made this year — 
In learning's paths our footsteps to survey, 
And trace our passage up the sloping way." 

Thomas Jefferson was President. It was a period of hot political dis- 
cussion about the "embargo" (see p. 143). The newspapers were tilled 
with articles approving or condemning the measure. Bryant, although 
only thirteen years old, wrote a poem satirizing it, which was published 
in Boston, and had a wide circulation. 

He entered Williams College. He was often seen sitting upon a stone 
in the fields gazing upon the surrounding hills and lost in thought. He 
was not able to complete his course for want of means, and began the 
study of law with Judge Howe, of Washington, Massachusetts. 

His father, in looking over a drawer, found some poetry which his son 
had written while at Williamstown. 

"What do you think of these lines?" he said, showing them to a lady 
of refined taste. 

She read with astonishment and with tears the lines entitled " Thana- 
topsis." 

His father sent the poem to Richard II. Dana, editor of the North 
American Review. 

" That poem never was written this side the Atlantic," said Mr. Dana 
to a friend. He could not believe that any American had written it, and 
learned with amazement that the author was only seventeen years old. 
More than sixty years have rolled away since the poem was written, but 
time has not diminished its beauty. 



1800-1860.] 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



453 



■ ':!<' 



" { Tlianatopsis ' alone is sufficient to establish the author's claim to the 
honor of genius," wrote Christopher North, of Edinburgh. 

Its publication was the dawn of the new Augustan age foreseen by 
Horace Walpole — the beginning of the literary career of the first great 
poet of the New World — the beginning of American literary culture and 
its resultant fruits. 

Bryant became editor of the New York Review in 1825, in which 
appeared the affecting tribute to the memory of a beloved sister — "The 
Death of the Flowers :" 

" The melancholy days have come, the saddest of the year, 
Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sere." 

He also became editor of the New York Evening Post — a writer of vig- 
orous power, choosing ever the most forcible word to express his meaning; 

writing upon the vital questions of 
every hour; wielding, as a writer, a 
'H far-reaching influence upon literary 

culture. 

William Irving, merchant, living 
at 131 William Street, New York, 
father of eleven children, gave the 
name of Washington to the young- 
est son, born April 3, 17S3. 

The boy was four years old and 
wearing his first trousers when Gen- 
eral Washington came to New York 
to be inaugurated President. lie 
went to a school taught by Ben- 
jamin Romani. lie did not like 
arithmetic, but wrote delightful 
compositions, lie left school when 
he was sixteen years old to study 
law, but found it far more pleasant 
to read the works of Fielding and Smollett, Addison and Goldsmith, than 
apply himself to the dry-as-dust works of Coke and Blackstone. His 
brother Peter published the Morning Chronicle; and Washington Irving, 
when he was nineteen, wrote articles for it over the signature of "Jona- 
than Old Style." 

He made a journey to Northern New York with Mr. and Mrs. Hoff- 
man and two young ladies. They stopped one night at a miserable tav- 




WILLIAM (LI. [IN BRYANT. 



454 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXIII. 




sunnvside: irvings iiomk. 



em, which Irving named the Temple of Dirt, and wrote these lines on 
the wall : 

" Sere Sovereign Dirt erects her sable throne — 
The house, the host, the hostess all her own." 

Judge Cooper, who had slept in many country taverns, saw what he 
had written, and added some lines of his own composing: 

"Learn hence, young man, and teach it to your sons, 
The easiest way 's to take it as it oomes." 

Irving sailed for France in 1804, travelled in France, Italy, and Eng- 
land, meeting Alexander Yon Humboldt and Madame de Stael. lie was 
absent two years, and met with many adventures. 

Great was the curiosity awakened in New Fork by a series of advertise- 
ments in the newspapers, the first appearing <>et<>l>er '_'">. 1 soil, asking for 
information about a small, elderly gentleman, dressed in a black cloak 
and cocked hat, by the name of " Knickerbocker," who had disappeared 
from his lodgings. 

The paper of November 6 stated that the little old gentleman had 



1800-1860.] LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 455 

been seen on the road near Kingsbridge. The paper of the following 
week contained an advertisement stating that a very curious manuscript 
had been found by Mr. Knickerbocker's landlord, and that it would be 
sold and printed, if the little old gentleman did not return and pay his 
board bill. The book was published, entitled a "History of New York." 
In a very short time everybody was reading it, and laughing over its de- 
scriptions of the old Dutch times — everybody, except some of the Dutch 
people, who did not like to have their ancestors made fun of. 

" If I were not a woman I would horsewhip the author," said one lady, 
with flashing eyes, to Washington Irving, who had written it, and who 
had taken this way of advertising it in advance of publication. 

It was the beginning of the literary career of the author of the "Sketch- 
book." That volume, together with "Knickerbocker's History of New 
York," were the first books produced in the United States that attracted 
the attention of literary men in Great Britain: 

James Fenimore Cooper was a sailor— a midshipman in the United 
States Navy. For six years he was upon the ocean. In 1821 he published 
his first novel, " Precaution," a story of English life, which attracted little 
attention, but it was immediately followed by a story of the Revolution, 
" The Spy," marked by a spirit and enthusiasm which made it intensely 
American. He wrote the "Pioneer," "The Last of the Mohicans," "The 
Prairie," " The Pathfinder," and the " Deerslayer," which he called " The 
Leather-stocking Tales," the hunter and trapper, Leather-stocking, appear- 
ing through them all. They could have been written in no other country. 
They were scenes of the frontier, portraying the spirit of the men who 
were laying the foundations of the Republic, and marked the beginning of 
real American fiction. 

The establishment of the North American Review in Boston, just 
after the second war with England, 1815, and the appearance of other 
literary magazines, containing poems and verses and prose articles written 
by Percival, Pierpont, Brainerd, Sprague, Dana, Paulding, and Willis, in- 
dicated the spirit of the rising nation. 

The authors wrote single articles, but not many books of any literary 
value; so few, that Sydney Smith, of England, essayist and reviewer, in 
1830 asked, " Who reads an American book?" 

In truth there were few books published before 1830 worth the read- 
ing. But the nation was growing; new States rising; literary culture 
advancing. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, minister of a Unitarian church in Boston, left 
preaching and became an essayist, lecturer, and poet. His thinking was 



450 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. X.Wlll. 




RALPH WAUio EMERSON. 



thoughtful student, Henry Wadsworth 
wrote verses, which were printed in 
the "Poet's Corner" of the village 
newspapers. He travelled in Eu- 
rope, and upon his return published 
a poem- romance — "Hyperion." It 
was a narration of a poet's wander- 
ings along the Rhine. In the same 
year, 1839, he published " Voices of 
the Night," a collection of poems; 
one, the " Psalm of Life," consisting 
of only nine stanzas of four lines 
each, but which has been read wher- 
ever the English language is spoken. 
"It was the very heart -beat of the 
American conscience," wrote George 
William Curtis. 

When the young printer, William 
Lloyd Garrison, liberated from the 



so different from what literary 
people had been accustomed to 
regard as correct and proper, 
that he was called a " transcen- 
dentalist" — those using the 
term not having a very clear 
comprehension of its mean- 
ing. Very few men had keen- 
er sense of beauty and right; 
few men such ability to give 
expression to their thoughts. 
Behiud his thinking was ever 
a great moral purpose — to 
make the world better. lie 
did not write many books, 
only a few essays and poems; 
but they have taken a perma- 
nent place in the literature of 
the English language. 

From Bowdoin College, in 

1S25, came a mild-mannered, 

Longfellow, who, while in college, 




III SRY WAD .WORTH LONOPEr.LOW 



1800-1860. J 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



457 



jail in Baltimore, began to lecture against slavery he found a steadfast 
friend in the person of John G. Whittier, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, 
descendant of Friends who had suffered persecution for conscience' sake. 
He hated injustice and wrong, and his sympathies were ever with the poor 
and oppressed. He had been writing poetic legends of the Indians — the 
" Bridal of Penacook," "Mogg Megone," and of the Merrimac River; but 
from the commencement of agitation on the slavery question his thoughts 
were of his fellow-creatures in chains: 

" Our fellow-countrymen in chains ! 

Slaves — in a land of light and law ! 
Slaves — crouching on the very plains 

Where lulled the storm of Freedom's war! 
A groan from Eutaw's haunted wood — 

A wail where Camden's martyrs fell — 
By every shrine of patriot blood, 

From Moultrie's wall and Jasper's well !" 

From that hour he became the 
poet of Freedom, wielding a weighty 
influence for the removal of the gi- 
gantic wrong, and in the building of 
the nation on justice and right. 

When the Mexican war was be- 
ginning a letter was published in the 
Boston Courier purporting to have 
been written by Ezekiel Bigelow, ac- 
companied by a poem written by Eze- 
kiel's son, Hosea, in which he ridi- 
culed the efforts of the military officers to obtain volunteers in 
Thus read one of the verses : 

''Thrash away! you'll hev to rattle 
On them kettle-drums o' yourn ; 
'Tain't a knowing kind of cattle 
That is ketched with mouldy corn." 

Poem after poem came from the pen of this poet, bright with wit, 

keen of sarcasm, which made doctors of divinity and learned judges who 

supported slavery feel very uncomfortable. There was no such person, 

however, as Hosea Bigelow; the poems were written by -Tames Russell 

Lowell, of Cambridge, whose grandfather wrote the Bill of Rights, by 

which slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. The poems were reprinted 

in the newspapers all over the Northern States. The sarcasm, wit, and 

1 5* 




JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 



Boston. 



458 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXIII. 



ridicule enabled men to see as never before how the slave-holders were 
using the members of Congress, judges, merchants, and the people of the 
Northern States generally to further their interests. 

It was the beginning of the literary career of a poet whose voice has 
ever been for freedom, justice, and 
humanity. 

These are the bright stars that 
have shone in the firmament of 
American literature. Not now does 
any one ask, "Who reads an Ameri- 
can book ?" The cultured of every 
land are familiar with Bryant and 
Longfellow. Thoughtful men of 
every country linger with delight 
over the pages of Emerson. The 
writings of Bancroft, Prescott, Park- 
man, and Motley promise to occupy 
a permanent place in historical lit- 
erature. 

At the beginning of the century 
the world knew very little about 
science. In 1774, when the patriots 
of the Revolution were preparing to 

defend their political rights, Dr. Priestley, of England, by heating red oxide 
of mercury in a retort, obtained oxygen gas, in which substances burnt 
with great brilliancy, and which, when inhaled, gave increase of vigor. 
He knew nothing, the world knew nothing of the part which it plays in 
the universe, constituting about one-third of the solid earth, forming 
by weight nine-tenths of water and one-fourth of the atmosphere; that 
without it there can be no life, either animal or vegetable. 

It is just a century since Cavendish and Watt discovered that water, 
instead of being a single element, is composed of oxygen and hydrogen 
gases; that when the two are combined water is formed. 

Chemistry and geology were in their infancy when Benjamin Silliman 
was appointed professor of chemistry in Vale College in 1802. lie made 
a partial survey of his native State — the first systematic geological sur- 
vey in the Western World, lie made many scientific experiments, pub- 
lished books, and established the American Journal of Science and Ait 
in 1810. 

In 1S46 Louis Agassiz, born in Switzerland, arrived in Boston. He 




JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 



1800-1860.] 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



459 



was a great lover of natural history, and when walking in the fields was 
accustomed to pick up snakes and toads, take them home, and study their 
habits. He settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was made professor 
in the Lawrence Scientific School, connected with Harvard University, 
and from that time to his death gave his life to science. 

Joseph Henry, born in Albany in 1797, became a watch-maker. In 
1826 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the Albany Academy, 
where he began experiments in electricity — sending an electric current 
through a wire more than a mile in length. His experiments enabled 
Professor Morse to construct the electric-telegraph. 

Mr. James Lewis Smithson, of England, a chemist, having great admi- 
ration for the government which the people of the United States had 
established, bequeathed nearly six 
hundred thousand dollars to the 
country for the establishment of an 
institution for the increase and dif- 
fusion of knowledge — to be known 
as the Smithsonian Institute. Upon 
its establishment, in 1S46, Professor 
Henry was appointed secretary, and 
became known to the world as one 
of the learned scientists of the age. 
Associated with these were Benja- 
min Pierce, Alexander Dallas Baclie, 
William B. Rogers — men who have 
made great and valuable contribu- 
tions to science. 

Upon this western continent 
there has been, as it were, the cre- 
ation of a new earth and a new 
heaven — -the rising of a government 




LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



of the people — the shining forth of 

a new literature. The forces that have produced the nation have been 
vitalized by the spirit of freedom, a love for justice and equal rights for 
the elevation of the human race to a higher plane of civilization. The 
literature and science of the New World are characterized by an enthusi- 
asm and expectation far beyond the attainments of the present, looking 
towards a future, to achievements inexpressibly grand and glorious. 



4*30 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXXIV. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

JOHN" BROWN. 

LITTLE did John Brown of Ossawattomie know how important a part 
he was to play in the great drama of history, or what would result 
from his action. lie was poor and unlearned, but has written his name 
large in the history of the country. He was born in Connecticut, but 
when he was five years old his father moved to Ohio. Although so young 
he made himself useful by driving the cows and sheep during the long 
and weary journey, lie killed rattlesnakes, and once caught a squirrel 
by the tail and held on to it. though the squirrel bit his ringer through 
to the bone. 

When the war with England began in 1812 John Brown was twelve 
years old, and so self-reliant that his father, who was supplying the soldiers 
under General Harrison with beef, sent him alone with a herd more than 
one hundred miles. There were few settlements along the road, which 
ran through dense forests, where there were bears and wolves, but he did 
not fear them, and reached the camp with the cattle. 

During the journey he stopped one night at a house where there was 
a negro boy of his own age who was a slave, who had little food to eat. 
and who was often cruelly whipped by his master. John Brown felt a 
choking in his throat when he saw the negro knocked down with an 
iron shovel. In his heart he took an oath of eternal hostility to slavery, 
lie never used profane language: it was the flaming up of his sold for 
justice and right. 

John Brown wrote thus of his early years: 

••At the age of ten an old friend induced him to read a little history, 
and offered him the free use of a library, by which he acquired some taste 
for reading, which formed the principal part of his early instruction, and 
diverted him in a great measure from bad company. He never attempted 
to dance in his life, nor did he ever learn to distinguish one card from 
another, lie knew nothing of grammar, nor did he acquire much knowl- 
edge of arithmetic." 



1859. J JOHN BROWN. 461 

He hated oppression and injustice, and was ever ready to help the 
poor. He wanted to be a minister, but became a tanner instead. He was 
so conscientious that he would not sell his leather until it was completely 
dry. "It would not be right to sell water," he said. He became a wool- 
merchant in Massachusetts, but lost what little money he had earned, and 
was very poor. He selected a home in the wilderness of Northern New 
York, felled the trees, built a cabin ; but, when emigrants were wanted to 
make Kansas a free State, he went to that State with his six sons, organ- 
ized a company, and fought the Border Ruffians who were murdering the 
people. 

John Brown thought and acted for himself. He did not believe that 
shivery would ever be abolished by telling the slave-holders it was a sin; 
nor did he believe that the people of the Southern States would ever be 
made to see that they would be better off if it were abolished. He 
believed that the only way to put an end to it was to make slave prop- 
erty insecure. Of all the heroic deeds narrated in the Bible John Brown 
was most deeply impressed by w T hat Gideon accomplished. He enter- 
tained the idea that he also was to be an instrument in the hands of 
the Almighty to give freedom to the slaves. He planned a raid into 
Virginia from Harper's Ferry to liberate the slaves, supply them with 
guns, pistols, and pikes — not to murder their masters and mistresses, for 
he was very kind-hearted, and could not bear the thought of shedding 
blood except in self-defence, but to defend themselves if attacked. He 
did not contemplate taking them to Canada, but believed they could de- 
fend themselves in the mountains; that the news would go through all 
the Southern States; that there would be uprisings everywhere. His 
sons and the men who had stood by him in Kansas would act with him. 
He did not see that the probabilities of success were all against such a 
plan. 

He rented a farm near Harper's Ferry, in Maryland. One by one the 
men who had been with him in Kansas joined him. People wondered 
what was in the boxes that he carted from the railroad, in Chambersburg. 
to his farm, little thinking that they contained rifles which had been used 
in Kansas. 

October 16, 1859, came, and John Brown, with seventeen white men 
and five negroes, marched in the darkness into Harper's Ferry. There 
was a watchman on the bridge spanning the Potomac. On the Virginia 
side of the river stood the arsenal owned by the United States, which was 
seized. Colonel Lewis Washington was taken prisoner, and his slaves lib- 
erated. A railroad train came; Brown stopped it, but after a while allowed 



462 



IiUILDl.V; THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXIV. 



it to go on to Baltimore. One by one the citizens were arrested and held 
as hostages. 

" What is your objects asked Colonel Washington. 

"To free the slaves;* 

Two of the citizens tired at Brown's men, who returned the fire, killing 
one of their assailants. The citizens then began firing from their houses, 
and mortally wounded Watson Brown. 

" Harper's Ferry is in the hands of the Abolitionists !" 

The news was flashing along the wires to Baltimore, Washington, Rich- 
mond, all over the country. Horsemen were riding to the neighboring 




HARPER S I ERRY. 



t<»\vn of Charleston, where the bells rung and the drums beat, and the 
militia, nearly four hundred, under Captain Botts and Captain Avis, hast- 
ened to capture the invaders. 

The Jefferson Guards crossed the Potomac in two boats, two miles 
above the Ferry, came down the north bank of the river, took poss< 
of the bridge, cutting oft Brown's retreat; the rest of the troops advanced 
from the Virginia side. Five of Brown's men, under Kagi. attempted to 
wade the river. They reached a rock midway the stream. Two hun- 
dred Virginians stationed on both sides of the river began to fire. Kagi 
fell riddled by balls, and his body floated away in the swirling stream. 
One by one they dropped. Leemann, the youngest of Brown's men. 



1S5U.] JOHN BROWN. 463 

threw away his gun and swam toward the shore. The bullets fell like 
hail around him. A Virginian waded into the stream. 

" Don't shoot !" cried the swimmer, throwing up his hands ; but the 
Virginian's pistol flashed, and the lifeless body disappeared in the swift- 
running current. One of Brown's men, Thompson, gave himself up as 
prisoner. He was taken to the hotel. The Virginians were going to 
murder him in the parlor. 

" I don't want the carpet spoiled," said the landlord's daughter, placing 
herself before the prisoner. The Virginians dragged him down to the 
river, tumbled him over the railing, and shot him as he fell, riddling h.m 
with bullets. 

John Brown, with the rest of his men, was in the engine-house. He 
sent out Stevens with a flag of truce, who was shot down by the militia. 

Through the day more troops came from Baltimore, Hagerstowm, and 
Frederick. Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived from Washington with ninety 
United States Marines and two cannon, making fifteen hundred men to 
capture twenty-three — reduced, when night came, to six, for the mangled 
corpses of most of Brown's men were floating down the Potomac or were 
lying in the streets. 

A writer in the Frederick Herald pictures the scene: 

" The dead lay in the streets and in the river, and were subjected to 
every indignity that a wild and madly excited people could heap upon 
them. Curses were freely uttered against them, and kicks and blows in- 
flicted upon them. Though dead aud gory, vengeance was unsatisfied ; 
and many, as they ran sticks into the wounds of a negro, wished that he 
had a thousand lives, that all might be forfeited in expiation and avenge- 
ment. Leeman lay upon a rock in the riveiyand was made a target for 
rifle practice. Shot after shot was fired at him, and when tired of this 
sport a man waded to where he lay, set him in a grotesque attitude, and 
finally pushed him off, and he floated down the stream.' 1 

Tuesday morning came. John Brown refused to surrender unless he 
could be allowed to depart unmolested. That could not be allowed. The 
Marines advanced, burst open the door of the engine-house — having three 
men wounded while doing it. Lieutenant (frccn rushed upon Brown, who 
had laid down his arms, struck him in the face with his sabre, felling him 
to the ground, and a soldier ran his bayonet twice through his body. 

The struggle was over; two only of the prisoners were unhurt. Upon 
the giass in front of the engine-house lay the man who had planned the 
enterprise. 

" An> you Captain Brown, of Kansas?" 



464 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXXIV. 

" I am sometimes called so." 

" Are you Ossawattomie Brown ?" 

" I tried to do my duty there." 

" What is your present object?" 

" To free the slaves." 

" Were any other persons but those with you now connected with the 
movement?" 

" No." 

" Did you expect aid from the North ?" 

" No."" 

"Did yon intend to kill people in order to carry your point?" 

" I did not wish to do so, but you forced us to it. I could have burnt 
your town and murdered you had such been my design." 

Twenty-three men had made the attack; all were killed or captured; 
yet all Virginia was in alarm. In the towns there was beating of drums 
and mustering of militia. Business stopped. At Washington the mili- 
tary force was increased. Everybody feared an uprising of the negroes. 

In the court-room at Charlestown John Brown lay upon a cot while 
the mockery of a trial went on. Nothing was done for his comfort. 

"Have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed 
upon you ?" asked the Court. 

" The Bible teaches me to remember those that are in bonds as bound 
with them. I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I believe that 
to have interfered as I have done in behalf of God's despised poor was not 
wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my 
life for the furtherance of justice, and mingle my blood farther with the 
blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country 
whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I 
submit; so let it be done." 

The sun rose clear and bright on the '2d of December. Very early in 
the morning troops began to arrive — horsemen in scarlet jackets, artil- 
lery-men with cannon, infantry wearing the uniform of the Old Continen- 
tals, cocked hats and cockades. One cannon was loaded with grape-shot 
and planted near the jail. Other cannon were placed to sweep all the 
avenues leading to the field where John Brown was to be executed. Three 
thousand militia were under arms. Horsemen were out in the country 
on all the roads for fifteen miles around, stopping every stranger and ask- 
ing his business. All through Virginia were men fearful that negroes, or 
,vhite men from the North, would be making their way to Charlestown 
to rescue the prisoner. 



1859.] JOHN BROWN. 465 

Eleven o'clock came — the hour assigned for his execution. During 
his imprisonment John Brown has been manacled. He steps freely and 
cheerfully now into the open air. By the door of the jail kneels a negro 
woman, with a child in her arms. He stoops and kisses the child. 

" God bless you, old man ! I wish I could help you." 

It is one of the despised race who utters the words; the race whom he 
has tried to liberate; the race for whom he is about to die. There are 
tears in the eye of the brave man who is a stranger to fear. He steps into 
a furniture wagon containing his coffin. 

The jailer, Captain Avis, sits by his side. He looks out upon the scene ; 
around him are the soldiers. Drums are beating, but he does not seem to 
hear them. He is gazing upon the blue mountains and the sunlight rest- 
ing peacefully upon the hills. 

" This is a beautiful country," he says. 

No blanching of his furrowed cheek, no trembling of nerves. 

"You are a game man, Captain Brown," remarks the driver. 

"Yes, my mother taught me never to fear; but it is hard for me to 
part from friends, though newly made." 

" You are more cheerful than I am, Captain Brown." 

" Yes, and I ought to be." 

The procession reaches the scaffold, and John Brown steps down from 
the wagon. He turns to those who have had the care of him. 

" Gentlemen, good-bye. Captain Avis, I have no words to thank you 
for all your kindness to me." 

He walks past the jailer, sheriff, officers, and with firm step ascends 
the scaffold stairs. His arms are pinioned, but he lifts his hat from his 
head and drops it upon the platform. The long line of soldiers, who have 
expected to see a white face and trembling form, gaze in amazement upon 
the scene. His elbows and ankles are pinioned, a white cap is drawn over 
his eyes, the rope adjusted around his neck; those about him discover no 
quickening of his pulse, no sign of fear. 

"Captain Brown, you are not on the drop. Will you come forward?" 
said the sheriff. 

"I cannot see, gentlemen ; you must lead me." 

" Shall I give you a handkerchief to drop as a signal?" 

"No, I am ready ; but do not keep me needlessly waiting." 

It is his last request; but the officer commanding the three thousand 
troops is not ready. The troops march, wheel, countermarch, closing 
around the gallows. Ten minutes pass, and John Brown the while stands 
erect upon the drop waiting, not a nerve quivering. 



466 



BUILDINii THE NATION'. 



[CHAP.xxxrv 




UK STOOPS AMI KISSKS T1IK C1III.I). 



"Shame! shame!" murmur the assembled crowd. 

The stroke of a hatchet severs the rope, and John Brown swings in 
mid-air. 



1859.] JOHN BROWN. 407 

At North Elba, New York, friends gather to the funeral, singing his 
favorite hymn : 

"Blow ye the trumpet, blow, 
The gladly solemn sound; 
Let all the nations know- 
To earth's remotest bound: 
The year of jubilee is come — 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home." 

Wendell Phillips, looking down into the open coffin and gazing upon 
the face calm and peaceful in death, said, " He has abolished slavery." 

Dead, but still living. They who make great sacrifices for truth, jus- 
tice, and liberty can never die ; and so in years to come millions of men 
shall march over fields stained with human gore singing : 

"John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
But his soul is marching on." 



468 BUILDING THE NATION. TChai. XXXV. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

FOR a period of forty years the antagonism between freedom and 
slavery had been increasing. The slave -holding States, to obtain 
greater political power, brought about the annexation of Texas, the war 
with Mexico, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise ; but instead of gain- 
ing power it was slipping from their grasp. 

It was expected that California would be a slave State, but the discov- 
ery of gold had peopled the Pacific slope with men opposed to slavery. 

The Missouri Compromise had been repealed, with the expectation that 
Kansas and Nebraska would become slave States; but there were to be 
no slaves in Kansas. 

For many years political leaders in the Southern States had been 
threatening to bring about a dissolution of the Union if they could not 
have their way. They had no love for the Union. They maintained that 
each State should control its own destiny. They were looking forward to 
a time when there would be either a Southern Confederacy, or when sla- 
very would be extended over all the Northern States. 

"Cotton is King," they said. "England must have it to supply her 
manufactories; New England must have it to live." 

The chief cotton-producing States were South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. 

"We can be arbiters of the nation's destiny," said the slave-holder.- of 
those States. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and the patriots 
of the Revolution had established the government on justice, liberty, the 
worth and dignity of man; but John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, John 
M. Mason, William M. Yancey, Robert Toombs, and the men who were 
advocating secession intended to adopt a new basis of government — class 
distinction in society — the degradation of labor. The slaves were to 
be the lowest class; themselves the highest. The few would rule. The 
government which they intended to establish would not be a government 
of the people, but an oligarchy. In time they would be dukes, earls, lords. 



1860.1 THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 469 

During the administration of James Buchanan the Southern leaders 
were planning to bring about a secession of the slave-holding States. A 
secret society was formed, called the "Knights of the Golden Circle," 
which had passwords and signs. Its object was to foment treason. 

The Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, of Georgia, so far as he 
could, was spending the money of the nation to help the Southern States. 
The Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, of Virginia, was secretly sending 
cannon, muskets, swords, pistols, and ammunition from the arsenals in the 
North to those in the Southern States. 

The people of the South complained of the aggression of the Northern 
States; that the Fugitive Slave Law could not be enforced; that Northern 
men were helping slaves to escape ; that the South was being robbed ; that 
the Constitution failed to protect them; that the attempt of John Brown 
to free the slaves was applauded by the people of the North. 

The Republican party — formed to resist the aggression of slavery — was 
growing stronger, sweeping all the Northern States. The newspapers in 
the South said that it was a sectional party, and the Democratic and Whig 
newspapers all over the country echoed the cry. 

The year 1S60 came — the year for electing a new President. 

Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, who had brought about the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, who had done what he could to make Kansas 
and Nebraska slave States, wished to be the candidate of the Democratic 
party. The convention of the party assembled at Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, in May. There were angry disputes. The Southern Democrats 
would not have a Northern man unless he would promise to grant all 
their demands. A large majority of them left the convention. Those 
who remained balloted fifty-seven times for a candidate, and then ad- 
journed, to meet at Baltimore. 

The Whig party — what was left of it — met at Baltimore, and nomi- 
nated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of 
Massachusetts, for Vice-President. 

The Southern portion of the Democratic party nominated John C 
Brecki n ridge, of Kentucky. 

The Republican Convention met at Chicago, in a great building called 
the "Wigwam," erected for the purpose, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, 
of Illinois. The world knew very little about him. He was born in Ken- 
tucky, in 1809, in a log-cabin. His father and mother were very poor. 
When he was seven years old he went to a school kept by Zachariah Biney, 
an Irishman, for a few weeks. He attended Caleb Hazel's school almost 
three months, learning to read, write, and cipher. He heard the Rev. Mr 



470 BUILDING THE NATION. [Chap. XXXV. 

Elkins preach now and then in the log-cabins and under the wide-spread- 
ing trees, but not until he was a large boy did he see a church. 

His father disliked slavery ; and as he could not get a good title to 
land in Kentucky moved to Indiana. The schools were better there ; but- 
there was so much hard work to be done that Abraham Lincoln, though 
only eight years old, had little time to attend school; altogether he did 
not go a year. 

His mother died, which was a great grief to him. 

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother; blessings 
on her memory," he said in after years. 

He had few books, but delighted to read "^Esop's Fables," Bunyan's 
" Pilgrim's Progress," Weems's " Life of Washington," and the Bible. He 
loved to wrestle, pitch quoits, and throw an iron bar. He was ready to 
help any one who needed help. 

One night, as he and other boys were going home from a " raising," he 
discovered a stray horse, saddled and bridled, in the woods, and near by it 
a man dead-drunk upon the ground. 

"Let us leave him," said his companions. 

"No, he will freeze to death this cold winter night." 

" AVe can't carry him." 

" Put him on my shoulder." 

His companions lifted the poor drunkard, and Abraham Lincoln car- 
ried him a quarter of a mile to a cabin, and stayed with him through the 
night. 

When he was nineteen years old, with a companion he went to New 
Orleans, floating down the Ohio and Mississippi on a flat-boat, with corn 
and other produce from the farm for sale. 

The trees were large and the forests dense in Indiana; but in Illinois 
there were far-reaching prairies, and when Abraham was twenty-one 
years of age he and his father moved into that State. 

"Abraham was not very good-looking at that time," said George Cluse, 
who worked with him. "He was tall, ungainly, and wore trousers made 
of flax and tow, out at both knees." 

He was very poor, so poor that he cut down the oak-trees and split four 
hundred rails for Mrs. Nancy Milles for a yard of jean dyed with butter- 
nut bark. He had to walk seven miles to and from his work. 

He helped John Hawks and two other men build a large flat-boat on 
the Sangamon River, cutting out all the planks and timber with a whip- 
saw. They were to take a boat-load of hogs to New Orleans. They could 
neither coax or drive the hogs on board, whereupon Abraham seized them 



I860.] 



THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



171 



one by one in his brawny arras and carried them into the boat. He made 
a second trip to the far-off city, and did his marketing so well that when 
he came back the man who had employed him hired him to tend his 
store. He was so exact in all his dealings that people called him "Hon- 
est Abe." Every one trusted him. He had such excellent judgment, and 
was so true-hearted, that he was always chosen judge and referee in all 
matters of dispute. 

When the Indian chief Black Hawk made trouble, and soldiers were 
called for, Abraham Lincoln was one of the first to volunteer, and was so 
popular that the soldiers elected him captain. At one time he thought 
of being a blacksmith, but his neighbors wanted their land surveyed, and, 
obtaining a compass and using a grape-vine for a chain, he became a land- 
surveyor instead. 

In 1834 his friends elected him to the Legislature, and re-elected him 
in 1836. He came in contact with men ; began to study great questions. 

No longer could he be a 
store-keeper or land-survey- 
or. He had acted as judge 
for his friends and neigh- 
bors : he would become a 
lawyer. In 1836 he was ad- 
mitted to the Bar, and made 
Springfield his home. He 
was elected to Congress. lie 
was a Republican, and the 
Republican party in Illinois 
wished to elect him as Sen- 
ator. 

Stephen A. Douglas was 
the Democratic candidate. 
They made speeches against 
each other ; but the Dem- 
ocratic party carried the 
State, and Mr. Douglas was 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. , ' 1, ' < ' k " 1 - 

Little did Abraham Lin- 
coln know what was in store for him : that the people of the North would 
take him as their great leader in opposing the aggressions of slavery. 

When the convention of the Democratic party met in Charleston, South 
Carolina, the members from the cotton-producing States made humiliating 




47i> 



BUILDING THE NATION. 



[Chap. XXXV, 



demands upon the Northern members— that they should advocate the re- 
peal of all the laws in any way prohibiting or restraining slavery. 

The Northern members would not consent to such a demand, and 
delegates from the cotton States seceded from the convention. Those who 

remained adjourned, 
to reassemble at Bal- 
timore, where they 
nominated Stephen 
A. Douglas, of Illinois, 
for President. Those 
who had seceded nom- 
inated John C. Breck- 
inridge, of Kentucky. 
Thus the great party 
which had controlled 
the destinies of the 
country for many 
years was divided. 

The Southern poli- 
ticians threatened to 
bring about secession 
if Mr. Lincoln was 
elected. Douglas re- 
ceived twelve electoral 
votes, Bell thirty-nine, 
Breckinridge seventy- 
two, Lincoln one hun- 
dred and eighty: fifty- 
seven more than a majority. lie was constitutionally elected. 

The South Carolina leaders carried out their threats. On December 
20, 1860, a convention assembled in Charleston, and declared the State 
to be no longer in the Union, alleging that the Northern States had vio- 
lated the Constitution by passing bills nullifying the Fugitive Slave Act, 
and in the election of a President opposed to slavery. Georgia seceded 
in January, and Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas in February. 
On the 9th of February delegates from three cotton-growing States met 
at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new government, "The Confed- 
erate States of America," electing Jefferson Davis President. 

" The great Republic is gone," wrote the correspondent of the London 
Times. The aristocracy of England rejoiced. Jefferson Davis, when 




JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



I860.] 



THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



473 



leaving his home to become President of the Confederacy, made a speech 
to his fellow-citizens. 

" England," he said, " will not allow our great staple to be dammed up 
within our present limits; the starving thousands in their midst would 
not allow it. If war must come, it must be on Northern and not on 
Southern soil. The Border States will come into the Southern States 
within sixty days, as we shall be their only friends. England will rec- 
ognize us, and a glorious future is before us. The grass will grow in 
the Northern cities, where the pavements have been worn off by the tread 
of commerce. We will carry war where it is easy to advance, where food 
for the sword and torch awaits our armies in the densely populated cities." 

In Charleston Harbor stood Fort Sumter, commanded by Major An- 
derson, with a garrison of fifty-seven men. Jefferson Davis issued an or- 




FORT SUMTER. 



der to General Beauregard to open fire upon it from batteries which had 
been erected. Major Anderson's supplies were gone, he had nothing 
left except a little pork. The vessels which had been sent by President 
Lincoln with provisions could not reach the fort, and he was obliged to 
surrender. 

The Confederate States not only had seceded from the Union, but 
had begun civil war. 

The Southern people little comprehended what they were doing. They 
were blind to reason. They did not stop to think of what might possibly 
happen to the institution of slavery through civil war. They little under- 



474 JHTILDING THE NATION. [Chap.XXXV. 

stood the people of the North. They did not think that Northern men 
would fight. Editors of newspapers informed them that one Southerner 
was equal to half a dozen Yankees. They applied opprobrious epithets 
to Abraham Lincoln because he had prominent features, likening him to a 
baboon. Because he had split rails for a living they contemptuously 
called him the " rail-splitter." 

The far-seeing, thoughtful men of the South knew very little of the 
power of the Northern people. The Northern people themselves did not 
know how strong they were. The world had small comprehension of the 
forces which had been silently building the nation for three-fourths of a 
century; the self-reliance that comes from education; the power of diver- 
sified industry — the power of invention, scieuce, art; the newspapers read 
in every farm-house, every home, by the blacksmith at his forge, the joiner 
at his bench; the power of free thought, the pulpit, the lycenm, the town- 
meeting. The slave-holders regarded with contempt the men from Ire- 
land, Germany, Norway, and Sweden who had crossed the Atlantic to rear 
themselves homes on the prairies of the West. They did not think that 
such " foreign mercenaries," as they were called, would fight. They knew 
nothing of their love for liberty. 

The slave-holders did not comprehend that the war which they were 
waging was against the moral sense of the world; that the farmer driving 
his team afield, the mechanic, the laborer everywhere, by a heaven-born 
intuition, would regard it as a war for the degradation of labor. Jefferson 
Davis little thought that the men and women of England, when there was 
no cotton for them to spin and weave, when starvation would be staring 
them in the face, when their children would be crying for bread, instead 
of influencing England to interfere in behalf of the slave-holding States, 
would be holding prayer-meetings for the success of the Northern people 
— their hearts telling them that it was their battle which the North was 
fighting. The aristocracy, the dukes, lords, and nobles of England, and 
kings and emperors — the whole world, it may be said — knew nothing of 
the strength of a government of the people to suppress secession, extermi- 
nate slavery, and establish justice, right, and liberty. 

As little did the people of the Northern States understand the South. 
William II. Seward thought the South would yield ; that there would be 
little fighting. Most men thought that the trouble would soon be over; 
not comprehending the eternal antagonism between freedom and slavery. 

The Northern people did not know that the doctrine of " State Rights," 
in the resolution written by Jefferson in 179S, advocated by John C. Cal- 
houn, had become a great principle in the Southern States — that men had 



I860.] THE ELECTION OE ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 475 

come to believe that the State was far more than the nation ; that there 
had been a dying out of love for the Union ; that in taking up arms the 
Southern people would sincerely and truly believe they were fighting for 
liberty. The Northern people thought that it would be an easy matter to 
re-assert the authority of the government and put down secession. One 
by one other Southern States — North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and 
Arkansas — joined the Confederacy. Few were those who foresaw what 
would follow the first shot fired upon Fort Sumter — what an uprising of 
the people of the North ; what a marshalling of the armies of the Con- 
federacy ; what battles were to be fought and victories won. But the 
story of the war — how secession was put down ; the Confederacy crushed ; 
the Union preserved ; slavery destroyed ; liberty, justice, right, and the gov- 
ernment of the people re-established ; the nation ennobled, purified, glori- 
fied ; the Stars and Stripes made evermore the emblem of the world's 
best hope — all of this must be reserved for another volume. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Adams, John, President, 112; issues proclama- 
tion, 1.15. 

, John Quincy, 240. 

, Nehemiah, 395. 

Admission of California, 394. 

Agassiz, Louis, 458. 

Aid Committee of Kansas, 411. 

Ainswortn's Psalms, 266. 

Alamo, battle of, 296. 

Aleott, Bronson, 288. 

Alien law, 117. 

Ambrister, hung by General Jackson, 242. 

American Hoard of Foreign Missions, 266. 

System, 240. 

Ampudia, General, 322. 
Anecdote of Democrat and priest, 60. 
Angels of Buena Vista, 330. 
Antislavery discussion, beginning of, 306. 

Society, formation of, 288. 

agitation, 286. 

Arista, General, 321. 

Arkwright, Richard : spinning-frame, 71. 

Armistead, George, 219. 

Armstrong, General, 174, 212. 

Asbury, Francis, 256. 

Assault on Charles Sumner, 414. 

Assembly, Presbyterian, 285. 

Astor, John Jacob, 367. 

Astoria, settlement of, 367. 

Atchison, Dai id II., 410. 

Attucks, Crispus, 401. 

Auction, slave, 387. 

Augers, invention of, 139. 

Aunt Rachel, 421, 422. 

Austin, Stephen F., settles Texas, 291. 

, Moses, 291. 



B. 

Bache, Alexander Dallas, 459. 

Backus, Colonel, 177. 

Bainbridge, William, 121, 123, 169. 

Bank charter, 235. 

of the United States, 41. 

failures, 235. 

Banquet in Boston, 59 ; in Philadelphia, 60. 

Baptists, 252. 

Barbary pirates, 1 29. 

States, 121. 

Barber, Thomas W., 411. 

Barclay, Captain, 187. 

Barney, Joshua, 211. 

Barrel, Mr., 369. 

Barrows, Captain, 186. 

Bastile, 42, 50, 58. 

Bastrop, Baron, 293. 

Bates, Rebecca, 185. 

, Abigail, 185. 

Battles, Naval: Constellation and Le Croyable, 
115; Constellation and L' Insurgente, 116 ; Con- 
stellation and /." Vengeance, 116; Enterprise 
and pirate, 124 ; Chesapeake and Leopard, 143 ; 
Shannon and Nautilus, 159; Constitution and 
Guerriere, 164; Wasp and Frolic, 167; United 
States and Macedonian, 168; Constitution and 
Java, 17"; Hornet and Peacock, 172; Chesa- 
peake and Shannon, 179; Pelican and Argus, 
186; Entetprist and Boxer, 186; Lake Erie, 
187; Lake Champlain, 203; General Arm- 
strong and British fleet, 223. 

Battles, Land: General Barmar'a defeat, 30; St. 
Clair and Indians, 32; Anthony Wayne and 
Indians, 38 ; Tippecanoe, 146; Maguaga, L52; 
Surrender of Detroit, 163; Frenchtown, 157, 
17M; Fort George, 157; York, 171 ; Fori Meigs 



478 



INDEX. 



175; Sackett's Harbor, 177 ; Fort Stephenson, 
180; Stonington, 182; Thames, 194; Fort 
Erie, li'Ci; Niagara Falls, 197; Lundy's Lane, 
lit'.); Plattsburg, 206; Fort Nims, 208; Tal- 
ladega, 209; Horseshoe, 210;. Bladensburg, 
215; Moorsfield, 217; North Point, 218; Fort 
M'Henry, 219; New Orleans, 226; San Anto- 
nio, 294 ; Alamo, 297 ; San Jacinto, 299 ; Sem- 
inole Indians, 301 ; Palo Alto, 321 ; Keseca de 
la Palma, 321; Monterey, 324; Buena Vista, 
325; Vera Cruz, 334; Cerro Gordo, 335; 
Contreras, 341 ; Cherubusco, 344 ; Molino del 
Rey, 347 ; Chapultepec, 348 ; Black Jack, 
412. 

Bay-state Psalm-book, 266. 

Bcadsley, Samuel, 309. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 397. 

Bell, John, 469. 

Bent's Fort, 383. 

Bible Society formed, 265. 

wanted by Indians, 371. 

Bigelow, Francis E., 400. 

Billings, Mr., 269. 

Birney, James G., 307. 

Black Hawk, 471. 

Black Jack, battle of, 412. 

Bladensburg, battle of, 212. 

Blaew, William, printing-press, 436. 

Blanchet, M., 378. 

Blennerhasset, Mr., 139. 

Blythe, Captain, 186. 

Booth, Sherman M., 402. 

Border Ruffians, 41 1, 415. 

Bowles, Colonel, 327. 

Brant, John, 157. 

Breckinridge, John C, 469. 

Breton Club, 51. 

Broadcloth manufacture, 236. 

Brock, General, 152. 

Brooks, Preston S. : attack on Charles Sumner, 
414. 

Brown, A. G, 394. 

, General, 177. 

, John, 410, 460. 

Brunswick, Duke of, 53. 

Buchanan, James, 414. 

Buffman, Arnold, and Antislavery Society, 288. 

Buford, Major, 411. 

Burgess, Ebenezer, and the Colonization Society, 
288. 

Burns, Anthony, sent back to slavery, 401. 

Burr, Aaron, 119, 138 



Buena Vista, battle of, 325. 

Bulfinch, Doctor: Oregon trade, 364. 

Bunker Hill monument, 246. 

Butler, Pardee, and Border Ruffians, 411. 

C. 
Calhoun, John C, 148, 248, 468. 
California emigration, 356, 362, 
Canada, invasion of, 158. 
Canals, 239, 242. 
Caramelli, Yussuf, 123. 
Carden, Captain, 168. 
Carding machines, 236. 

wool, 89. 

Carson, Kit, 355. 

Cass, Lewis, 1 53. 

I iastro, Governor, 355. 

Catch-me-who-can, 428. 

Catlin, Mr., 371. 

Celebration of the Constitution in New York. 22. 

of the French Revolution, 59. 

Cerro Gordo, battle of, 335. 

Chaises, 238. 

Champlin, Stephen : battle of Lake Erie, 189. 

< 'banning, William Ellery, 280, 811. 

Chapultepec, battle of, 348. 

Chauncey, Commodore, 174. 

Cheever, George B., and Deacon Giles's distillery, 

275. 
Cherubusco, battle of, 345. 
Chillicothe, settlement of, 132. 
Christmas in Virginia, 107. 
Church property in France, 50. 
Cincinnati, settlement of, 28. 
Civil war in Kansas, 412. 
Clark, Captain, 366. 
Clarke, William, 120. 
Classes in Mexico, 317. 
Clay, General, 175. 

, Henry, 14 7, 243,400. 

Claj eaters in the South, 285. 
Clinton, De Witt, 132,239. 
Clymer, George, 437. 

Cobb, Unwell, 469. 

Cockburn, Admiral, 211. 

Coffee, Ceneral, 209. 

Collin, Levi, and Underground Railroad, 418, 422. 

Coin, 235. 

Cokes, John, at San Jacinto, 298. 

Colonization Society, formation of, 282. 

Colored schools, 289. 

Columbia River, discovery of. 365. 



INDEX. 



479 



Commercial distress, 303. 
Compromise of 1850, 387. 

, Missouri, 243. 

Confederate States, 473. 
Congregationalists, 252. 
Conner, Admiral, 332. 
Constitutional Convention, 18. 
Contreras, battle of, 342. 
Convention at Hartford, 223. 

, Republican and Democratic, 469. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, 455. 

, Peter, 430. 

Cotton culture, rise of, 284. 

, demand for, 75. 

factories, 236. 

Country roads, 427. 

Cowdery, Oliver, and Mormon Bible, 442. 

Cradle of Liberty, 313. 

Crandall, Prudence, and colored schools, 289. 

Crockers of the South, 285. 

Crockett, David, 295. 

Croghan, Major, 180. 

Currency, decimal, 235. 

Curtis, George T., 399. 

Customs, change of, 78. 

D. 

Dade, Major, massacre of, 301. 

Dale, Commodore, 123. 

Dana, Richard H., 452. 

Dane, Nathan, and ordinance of 1787, 21. 

Davis, Jefferson, 327, 468, 472. 

Davy, Sir Humphry, 433. 

De Bow, Mr., 390. 

Deacon Giles's distillery, 275. 

Deaconing hymns, 269. 

Dearborn, General, 177, 220. 

Debt of the nation, 34. 

Decision of the Supreme Court, 416. 

Declaration of war against Great Britain, 148. 

Demerse, Mr., 378. 

Democratic Convention, 4t>'.», 471. 

Denison, Frederic, 184. 

Desmoulins, Cainille, 18. 

Detroit, surrender of, 152. 

Devonshire, Duke of, 12'.*. 

Dewey, Orville, 895. 

Directory of Fiance, 112. 

Dix, Major, 327. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 407, 469. 

Downie, Captain, 203. 

Drinking habits, 271. 



Drummond, General, 195, 200. 
Dutch baby song, 94. 

courting, 96. 

farmers, 97. 

• funerals, 96. 

houses, 94. 

Reformed Churches, 252. 

women, 95. 

Duel between Burr and Hamilton, 135. 

Duelling, 132. 

Dumouriez, General, 54. 

Duty, sense of, in New England, 78 

Dwight, Timothy, 451. 

E. 
Eaton, General, 128. 
Edwards, Jonathan, influence of, 4 51, 
Eldridge, Mr., 412. 
Election of Abraham Lincoln, 472. 

in Kansas, 414. 

Electro-magnet, 433. 

Elks-wa-ta-wa, 195. 

Elliott, Colonel, 180. 

Ellsworth, Oliver, Chief Justice, 41. 

Embury, Philip, 254. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 456. 

Emigrant Aid Societies, 408. 

Emigration Companies, 294. 

Episcopalians, 258. 

Equality of men, 396. 

Ericsson, John, 429. 

Evans, Oliver, inventor, 42, 428. 

Execution of John Brown, 466. 



Fairfield, John, and Underground Railroad, 422. 

Faneuil Hall, 311. 

Fanning, Colonel, 297. 

Fanner, Moses G., 435. 

Federal party, 35. 

Female Antislavery Society, 308. 

Flagg, Josiah, 269. 

Fight at Fayal, 22:s. 

Fillmore, Millard, 393,400. 

Financial distress, 285. 

Finlcy, R. IS., 2S2. 

Fire-alarm telegraph, 435. 

Fire-engines, 135. 

First telegraph message, 484. 

Fitch, John, 74, 189. 

Florida everglades, 301. 

, purchase of, 'J 18. 



480 



INDEX. 



Porta: Brown,318; M'Henry, battle of, 219; Ninas, 
208 : Sumter, 173 ; Vancouver, 377 ; Hall, 381 ; 
Laramie, 874; Niagara, battle of, 177; Dear- 
born, 151; Stephenson, battle of, 179; Erie, 
capture of, 196 ; Meigs, siege of, 174; Uintah, 
381 ; Bent, 382. 

Foster, Daniel, 401. 

Fourth of July, 91. 

Fox, Mr., sings " Hail, Columbia !" 114. 

Fiance, government of, 47. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 13,45. 

Free-state emigrants, 408. 

Fremont, John Charles, 348. 

French influence in the United States, 58. 

Frenchtown massacre, 154, 172. 

Freneau, Philip, 184,451. 

Fugitives from slavery, 394, 399, 418. 

Fulton, Robert, 140. 

Funeral of John Brown, 467. 

G. 
Gaines, General, 200. 
Galvani, Madame, 433. 
Galvanic electricity, discovery of, 433. 
Games in New England, 84. 
Garner, Margaret, 402. 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 286. 
Geary, John W.,413. 
Geddis, James,239. 
Genet, Edmund Charles, 59. 
Genius of universal emancipation, 286. 
Gerry, Elbridge, 112. 
Gibbs, General, '227. 
Glover, Joshua, 402. 
Gold discovery, 359 ; production, 362. 
Golden Circle, Knights of the, 469. 
Goliad massacre, 297. 
Guillotine invented, 52. 

H. 
Huh, , <s Corpus, 402. 
" Hail, Columbia !" 115. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 22,34,41, 136. 

, Charles, 415. 

Hamlin, Hannibal, 391. 
Hammond, Eliza Ann, 289. 
Hardin, Colonel, 326. 
Hardy, Admiral, 182. 
Hargreaves, -lames, 70. 
Harmar, General, 30. 
Harper's Ywy\\ attack on, 462. 
Harris, Martin, I 12 



Harris, Sarah, 289. 

Harrison, William Henry, 145, 174, 304. 

Hart. Eliza, 372. 

Hartley, David, 13. 

Harvest in New England, 86. 

Hawks, .John, 470. 

Hayden, Lewis, 399. 

Hayne, Senator, 248. 

Heald, Captain, 151. 

Heck, Barbara, 2:>4. 

Henry, Joseph, 433, 459. 

, Patrick, 21. 

Herald of Freedom, 305. 
Higginson, T. W.,401. 
Hill, Hannah, 260. 
Hoe, Richard M., 437. 
Holliman, Ezekiel, 252. 
Hollis Street Church, 280. 
Holmes, Jeremiah, 183. 
Hopkins, Bishop, 395. 

, Samuel, 282. 

Hopkinson, Joseph, 114. 

Horseshoe, battle of the, 210. 

Horseback riding, 238. 

Hospitality in Virginia', 104. 

Hotel des Invalides, 49. 

Houston, Samuel, 209, 294, 298. 

Howe, Judge, 452. 

Hudson's Bay Company, 355, 366, 377- 

Hull, Isaac, 159. 

, William, 149. 

Human rights, 283. 
Humphrys, Joseph, 113. 
Ilusking-parties, 86. 

I. 

Idlers, 273. 

Immediate emancipation, 287. 

Industry, mechanical, 236. 

of the people, 69, 95. 

Indian wars, 30, 31, 33, 176, 208, 301. 
Influence of France on the United States, 58. 

of the " Marseillaise," 55. 

Iniquity of liquor traffic, 275. 

Injustice of France, 113. 

Innocent III., 51. 

Intelligence in New England, 67. 

Invasion of Kansas, 413; of Mexico, 314 : of Vir. 

ginia,462. 
Invention, effect of, 431. 
Irwin, Mr., 72. 
Irving, Washington, 453. 
. William, 453. 



INDEX. 



4*1 



Jackson, Andrew, 204, 225, 242, 247. 

■Jacobins, 51. 

Jalapa, capture of, 337. 

Jay, John, 13, 41. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 34, 117, 119. 

Jesup, General, 196, 223. 301. 

Johnson, Colonel, 194. 

, Lieutenant, 224. 

Jones, Jacob, 187. 
Judson, Andrew I., 289. 
Jullien soup, 287. 

K. 

Kansas, organization of, 407 ; invasion of, 

a free State, 416. 
Kean, General, 227. 
Kearney, Stephen W., 399. 
Kelly, John, 259. 
Kentucky resolutions, 118; slave-hunters, 

wedding, 108. 
Key, Francis S., 219, 282. 
Kidnappers, 404. 
King Cotton, 468. 
King, Preston, 391. 
Kirtland riot, 443. 
Knickerbocker, Dietrich, 455. 
Knickerbockers, 93. 



Lafayette, visit to the United States, 245. 

Lake Erie, battle of, 188. 

Lambert, Captain, 168. 

Lane, General, 327. 

Lardner, Doctor, 426. 

Lasalle, Jacques, 171. 

Latta, Mr., 435. 

Latter-day Saints, 443. 

Lawrence, Amos A., 408. 

, James, 172. 

Lawrence, burning of, 412. 

Laws against selling liquor, 280. 

La Vega, General, 321. 

Lawyers, 273. 

Lee, Robert E., 334. 

Lettres de cachet, 43. 

Lewis, Meriwether, 366. 

Liberator, establishment of the, 288. 

Liberty, spirit of, 249. 

Life of slaves, 387. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 408, 416, 469. 

Little Falls Canal, 239. 



410; 



4n2; 



Livingston, Robert B., 120, 140. 

Lloyd, Admiral, 223. 

Locomotives, invention of, 429. 

Log-rolling, 111. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 456. 

Lord, Nathan, 395. 

Los Angeles, capture of, 357. 

Louis XIV., 42, 97. 

Louis XV., 42. 

Louisiana, purchase of, 120. 

Lovejoy, A. L., 381. 

, E. P., murdered, 310. 

Lowell, Francis C, 431. 

, James Russell, 458. 

Loyola, Ignatius, 378. 

Luce, Major, settlement of Cincinnati, 28. 

Lundy, Benjamin, 285. 

Lundy's Lane, battle of, 200. 

M. 

Machinery, manufacture of, 246. 
Macdonough, Commodore, 203. 
Mackinaw, capture of, 151. 
Macomb, General, 203. 
Madison, James, 118, 144, 220. 

, Mrs., 215. 

Magnetic iron discovery, 432. 

Maintenon, Madame, 253. 

Man dan Indians, 366. 

Manners and customs in Southern States, 103. 

Manufacturing, beginning of, 247, 431. 

Maple-sugar, 85. 

Marais des Cygnes, 414. 

" Marseillaise," first singing of the, 55. 

Marshall, John, 112. 

Mason, John M., 394, 468. 

Massacre at Black Rock, 195. 

at Goliad, 297. 

in Oregon, 385. 

Massie, Nathaniel, 131. 
May, Samuel Jay, 288. 
M'Comas, Benry C.,218. 
M'Neil, Colonel, 196. 
McArthur, Duncan, 131, 153. 
McDougal, Mr., 367. 
McKay, Mr, 367. 
McKenzie, Mr., 366. 
Meeting-houses, 79, 251. 
Merchants of Virginia, 102. 
Methodists, 255. 

Mexican patriotism, 337; people, 318; revolu- 
tion, 291. 



16 



482 



INDEX. 



Michigan Territory, 150. 
Military districts, 220. 

training in New England, 87. 

Miller, James, 199. 
Mills, Nancy, 470. 

, .Samuel, J., 265. 

Ministers in Virginia, 251. 

Minon, General, 325. 

Mini establishment, 235. 

Missions of the American Board, 372. 

Missouri, admission of, 243 ; the settlement of, 

243. 
Missourians in Kansas, 411. 
Mobs, 808, 809, 810. 
Money, scarcity of, 236. 
Monroe, James, 120, 232. 

doctrine, 2-1 -V 

Monterey, battle of, 321. 

Morales, General, 332. 

Morey, Samuel, 139. 

Mormon Bible, 440. 

Mormonism, rise of, 1 1-. 

Morris, Gouverneur, 239. 

Morse, S. F. B., and the telegraph, 433. 

Mott, Lucretia, 306. 

Mountain Meadow massacre, 441. 

".Mud-sills," 390. 

Murray, General, 195. 

Music, 266, 269. 

N. 
Nantes, people of, 46. 
Napoleon Bonaparte, 112. 
National road in Mexico, 338. 
Nauvoo Legion, 444. 
Navy of the United States, 113. 
Negro-catching, 400. 

huts, 418. 

New England ideas of law and order, 67. 

Albion, 363. 

Hampshire schools, 63. 

Jersey, first settlers of, 97. 

Mexico, 349. 

Orleans, battle of, 226. 

Newark, burning of, 195. 
Nez Perces Indians, 871. 
Niagara Falls, battle of, 197. 
North Point, battle of, 21'.*. 
North-wesl Territory, 181. 

Trading Company, 366. 

North-western Fur Company, 151. 
Nullification, 248. 



0. 

O'Brien, Lieutenant, 329. 

Ogdensburg, plunder of, 174. 

Ohio, first settlement of, 27. 

in 1812, 151. 

"Old Ironsides," 170. 

Things, 431. 

Opinion in the United States, 59; in the North- 
ern States, 474 ; in slave-holding States, iti. 

Oregon, settlement of, 367; saving of, 382; his- 
tory of, 385 ; expedition, 374. 

Osceola, 301. 

P. 

Pacheco, General, 327. 
Paine, Thomas, 45. 
Pakenham, Sir Edward, 223. 
Palo Alto, battle of, 321. 
Parker, Mary, 308. 

, Sir Peter, 215. 

, Theodore, 396. 

Parliament, thanks to General Ross by, 220. 
Parties in France, 51. 

in the United States, 35. 

Pate, Captain, 412. 
Patent law, 425. 
Patterson, General, 332. 

Peace with Great Britain, 18, 228; with the In- 
dians, 34 ; with Mexico, 350. 
Pennsylvania Hall destroyed, 309. 

, people of, 98, 100. 

Pensacola, taking of, 243. 
Pensions, 232. 
Perry, Oliver H., 187. 
Personal liberty bills, 424. 

Phillips, Wendell, 311. 

, William, 410. 

Phyla, composer of " Hail, Columbia I" 114. 

Pierce, Franklin, 387,401. 

Pierpont, John, 280. 

Pike, Zebulon, 174. 

Pillow, General, 872. 

Pinckney, Charles C, 112. 

Pioneer settlers, 107. 
Pins VII , 129. 

Planters in Virginia, 101. 

Planters' power, 388. 

Political power in the Southern States, 390. 

Polk, James K., 314, 350. 

Pompadour, Madame, 43. 

Poor white | pie, 101. 

Population, 34. 



INDEX. 



483 



Porter, General, 196. 

Poverty of the people, 26. 

Pratt, Parley P., 446. 

Prayer-book, 258. 

Prayer-meeting, 265. 

Preble, Edward, 124. 

Prentis, Nareissa, 373. 

Presbyterians, 253. 

Presidential title, 21. 

Press-gang, 112. 

Prevost, Sir George, 151, 172. 

Primer in New England, 64. 

Prince, Joanna, 260. 

Printing-press destroyed, 437. 

Printing-presses, 437. 

Proctor, General, 51, 171, 175, 194. 

Proviso, Wilmot, 391. 

Puritans, 63. 

Putnam, Rufus, 27. 

Q. 

Quakers of Pennsylvania, 100. 
Queen of France, 53. 
Quincy, Edmund, 313. 

, Josiah, 147. 

Quitman, General, 332. 

R. 

Raikes, Robert, 260. 
Railroads, 302,42'.i. 
Randolph, John, 147, 243. 
Reid, Mrs., 234. 

, Samuel Chester, 223. 

Religious books, 262. 

Repeal of Missouri Compromise, 407. 

Republican party, 35,414. 

Republics of South America, 21 1. 

Resaca de la Palraa, battle of, 321. 

Resolutions of 1798, lis. 

Revolution in France, 48. 

Riail, General. 195. 

Rice cultivation, 76. 

Rigdon, Sidney, 140. 

Rights of the States, 393. 

Riley, Patrick, 400. 

Ringgold, Major, 318,321. 

Riots, 16, 52, 308, 309, 310, aOi. 

Ripley, General, L96. 

Rise of antislavery societies, 398. 

Robertson, James, 208. 

Robinson, Charles, 411. 

Rodgers, Commodore, 219. 



Ross, General, 211,218. 
Rouget de l'Isle, 55. 
Rousseau, M.,44. 
Rum distillation, 275. 
Rumsey, James, 139. 
Russians in California, 353. 

S. 

Sackett's Harbor, battle of, 177. 

Sailors' rights, 148. 

Salt Lake, settlement of, 446. 

San Francisco, settlement of, 353. 

San Jacinto, battle of, 298. 

Santa Anna, 276, 299, 317, 325. 

Sargent, Winthrop, 27. 

Scarborough, Mr., 426. 

Scholfield, Arthur, 236. 

Schools, common, 63. 

, singing, 269. 

, Sunday, 260. 

Schuyler, Philip, 238. 

Science, state of, 458. 

Scioto valley, settlement of, 132. 

Scott, Winfield, 157, 196, 325. 

Seabury, Samuel, first bishop, 259. 

Secession of Southern States, 472. 

Secessionists, 424. 

Sedition law, 117. 

Seizure of vessels by England ami France, 147. 

Seminole Indians, removal of, 302. 

Seward, William II., 416, 474. 

Sewell, Samuel E.,400. 

Shay's rebellion, 17. 

Shadrach, rescue of, 399. 

Shannon, WJlson, 411. 

Sheep, merino, 236. 

Ships : Alert, 160; A rgus, 186 ; Ariel, 189; Boxer. 
180; Brandywine,2i&; Caledonia,189; Carnal^ 
115; Chesapeake, 113, 143, 179; Chippewa, 192 
Chub,20S; Clermont, 111; Collingwood, 351 
Columbia, 365 ; Confianee, 203 ; Congress, 113 
Constellation, 11 :;, 115; Constitution, 113, 125 
159, 163; Coronation, 221; Cuyahoga, L51 
Despatch, 182; Detroit, 1ST; Discovery, :;<',:; 
Eagle, 203; Enterprise, 121, L86; Essex, 160 
Finch, 208; Frolic, 167; General Armstrong, 
223: GewgeWashington, 121, GoldenHind,Z&3 
Guerriere, L60, If,:;; Hornet, 172; Hunter, 187 
Intrepid, 121; Java, 168; Lady Prevost, \*~ 
Lawrence, 187 ; La Hogue, 184; /." Vengeana 
116; Le Croyable, 115; Leopard, 11."., 143 
DInsurgente, 11*1; Linnet, 203; Lydia, 367 



A 



